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TMI Blog1976 (10) TMI 143X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d before his death? (ii) Whether, in the facts and circumstances of the case, a partnership firm constituted out of the successor of the deceased can be assessed as transferee under section 17 of the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948?" The facts reported are these: One Shri D.R. Gupta was the sole proprietor of Messrs. Glass Palace, Sector 18, Chandigarh (hereinafter referred to as the firm). Shri Gupta died in a car accident on 10th May, 1969. After his death, the business of the firm was continued by Sarvashri Subhas Chander Gupta, Ajit Gupta (minor) and Mrs. Inder Gupta, the two sons and the wife of the deceased, as partners. The successor partnership firm did not apply for a fresh certificate of registration under the Act or the Cent ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... returns under subsection (3) of section 10, dies, his legal representative is required to convey the information to the prescribed authority. We asked Mr. Doabia whether, if the dealer had died before the assessment proceedings had commenced, it would still be legal to make an assessment of tax on him for the accounting year during which he was doing business, but the learned Additional Advocate-General expressed his inability to meet the point. There being no provision in the Act similar to section 24B of the Income-tax Act for enabling assessment to be made in such a case, it must be held that no such assessment can legally be made, and on the same principle it would appear to follow that if a firm has been dissolved and is no longer the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e karta of a Hindu undivided family which is continued by the remaining members of the family after the death of the karta. Be that as it may, the aforementioned judgment was challenged in appeal before the Supreme Court and the appellate judgment is reported as State of Punjab v. Jullundur Vegetables Syndicate(1). The Supreme Court, after noticing sections 16 and 17 (as it stood then) of the Act, addressed itself to the question whether a firm is a separate assessable entity for the purposes of the Act or whether it is only a compendious term used to denote a group of partners. It held that on dissolution, a firm ceases to be a legal entity and in the absence of an express provision, no assessment can be made on a firm which had lost its ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... mination of the tax would continue to be that provided under section 11 of the Act, which relates to the assessment of tax. If the case is viewed in this light, the following observations of their Lordships of the Supreme Court in State of Punjab v. Jullundur Vegetables Syndicate [1966] 17 S.T.C. 326 (S.C.). really clinch the issue against the petitioners: "Strong reliance was placed upon two judgments of this Court. This Court in C.A. Abraham v. Income-tax Officer, Kottayam[1961] 41 I.T.R. 425 (S.C.)., speaking through Shah, J., held that section 44 of the Income-tax Act set up a machinery for assessing the tax liability of firms which have discontinued their business. This was followed by this Court again in Commissioner of Income-tax, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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