9911796707
TMI Blog1967 (2) TMI 29X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nder section 66(2) of the Indian Income-tax Act. 1922, is : " Whether, on the facts found by the Tribunal, it is justified in law, in holding that profits of Rs. 12,959.09 in the cloth transaction, under the contract dated December 3, 1958, entered by the assessee with Messrs. Suratram Gopaldas, a firm of Bombay, was the profit in the hands of the Hindu undivided family ? " The assessee, Seth Chunilal Parsram was being assessed in his capacity as karta of the Hindu undivided family consisting of himself and his three minor sons, the principal source of whose income was money-lending business. Although there was at one stage an attempt by the assessee to give it the character of a separate business carried on by him with money borrowed f ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... on the cloth business, the assessee was acting in his individual capacity and on his own behalf. The normal presumption also is that an acquirer acquires for his own benefit such being human nature, unless by reason of association, affection, long-standing conduct or practice, the acquisition by a member may be regarded as an acquisition made for and on behalf of the joint family. It is, of course, open to a manager of a joint family either to work on behalf of the family, or carry on business on behalf of the family and also to blend with the joint family property moneys or properties which were undoubtedly his own separate properties. But that is a matter of proof depending upon close investigation of the facts. But one circumstance whi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ue of the said gifts, was directly credited by him to the capital account of the family in the books of account maintained in connection with the family money-lending business. But, in October, 1957, he split up the capital account into two, one relating to the family as a whole, and the other relating to him alone as an individual, and to the latter account he carried the full value of the gifts mentioned above, viz. Rs. 33,848.22. It would appear that at a later stage the assessee propounded a theory that the money-lending business was carried on by himself as an individual with money borrowed from the joint family and thought that the proper thing to do for him was to credit the family with interest on the moneys borrowed from the fami ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... al return and all other items as income of the undivided family. It is upon these facts that both the Appellate Assistant Commissioner the Tribunal seem to think that the normal presumption of law as stated by us is not available in this case. The Appellate Assistant Commissioner seems to think that the assesses has been juggling with the accounts and that his sole motive was to escape tax liability. The Tribunal, though it used milder language, seems to be of the same view. They have, however, given what appears to be a little more logical line of reasoning. They state, in our opinion rightly, that when the assessee agreed that the amount of the gifts should also be treated as belonging to the family and that the entire money-lending b ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rship, then the result must be that there is nothing in the materials placed before the Tribunal to displace the normal presumption of law. It, however, appears to us that even on the facts depended upon by the departmental officers, whose view has been accepted by the Tribunal, the inference, if any, should have been in favour of the assessee and not against him. As a matter of law it should be stated that blending of private properties with those of the family is not a matter of account writing but of the intention of the acquirer. If, as the Tribunal observes, the accounting entries are inconclusive, then they cannot be accepted as to any extent modifying or qualifying the normal intention which the acquirer may be said to entertain ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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