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TMI Blog1943 (2) TMI 12X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ed family within the meaning of Section 14(1) of the Act; and, if so, whether she received the maintenance allowance in dispute in such capacity? Shrimathi Rani Anand Kunwar of Lakhimpur is the widow of the late Raja Krishna Dutt Singh, Taluqdar of Oel and Kaimarah estates. The present Raja Yuvraj Dutt Singh is his grandson. During the lifetime of the late Raja the assessee received an annual allowance for maintenance and other expenses. He died on the 15th December, 1932, and the assessee became entitled under a will executed by him some years previously to a maintenance allowance of ₹ 1,000 a month. But on the 30th December, 1932, the present Raja, who had succeeded his grandfather (his father having predeceased the latter), ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 131:- It was further argued that for the application of Section 14(1) of the Indian Income-tax Act two conditions are necessary: the assessee should establish that he is a member of a Hindu undivided family and further that the sum under assessment was received by him as such. In the present case it was contended that there is no evidence that the amount in question was received by the applicant as a member of the Hindu family and so this Court, which is not sitting as a Court of Appeal against the order of the Commissioner of Income-tax, should not require the Commissioner to refer a question of law which does not directly arise in the case and which is not decisive of the case. We are not prepared to allow this contention to be rais ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ds that the directions and remarks quoted from this order were based on a misapprehension, the contention that the allowances had not been received by the assessee as a member of a Hindu undivided family having in fact been raised at the earliest opportunity. Section 14(1) provides that The tax shall not be payable by an assessee in respect of any sum which he receives as a member of a Hindu undivided family and we are not ourselves clear that it was never definitely accepted by the Income-tax department that the assessee received these allowances as such a member if in law she could be regarded as such. We understand that since the Raja's reply, their main case has been that she was not a member of a Hindu undivided family and n ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of a Hindu undivided family is primarily a question of fact, as was held by the Allahabad High Court in the case of Makhan Lal Ram Sarup [1925] A.I.R. 1925 All. 298 and by the Patna High Court in Commissioner of Income-tax, Bihar and Orissa v. Visheshwar Singh [1935] 3 I.T.R. 216 ; A.I.R. 1935 Pat. 342. So far as the evidence goes we have merely on the one side the reply of the present Raja to the Income- tax Officer, considered with the admitted fact that the estate is impartible, and on the other, the assessee's claim to be a member of a Hindu undivided family. We have not been referred to any other evidence and we think that it would be difficult to hold upon this evidence that the view taken by the Income-tax authorities was not ju ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ot been disputed before us but it does not go very far to prove the present assessee's case. The learned Counsel for the Income-tax department relied on the judgement of one of us in that case, as drawing a distinction between an allowance granted purely by way of maintenance on the basis of status and a maintenance allowance based on a will. The question whether any member of a Hindu family is entitled to exemption under Section 14 as a member of a Hindu undivided family, when the estate from which the allowance is paid is impartible, was not considered in that case. Another cognate question which too was not discussed in Rudh Kumari's case, is whether it is implicit in Section 14 that the allowance should come out of joint family ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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