9911796707
TMI Blog1999 (6) TMI 21X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... erty received from the assessee's father was taxable in the status of the Hindu undivided family ?" The material facts giving rise to this reference are as follows : During the assessment year 1978-79, the assessee derived income from house property and business. The assessee claimed that the above income should be assessed in the hands of the assessee's Hindu undivided family as the above properties had been received by him from his father who died intestate. The Income-tax Officer rejected the assessee's claim for being assessed as a Hindu undivided family in respect of the above income on the ground that the properties were the self-acquired properties of his father and the assessee received them on the death of his father intestate. H ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... . Admittedly, it was his self-acquired property. The assessee got the property as his share under section 8 of the Hindu Succession Act. The question that arises for consideration is whether the property inherited by the assessee as share of the self-acquired property of his father on his death intestate under section 8 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, belongs to the assessee in his individual capacity or it constitutes an asset of the Hindu undivided family of the assessee and his sons. There was a divergence of opinion between different High Courts at the time when the issue was decided by the Special Bench of the Tribunal on February 8, 1988, which decision has been followed by the Tribunal in the present case. The Allahabad High Cour ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... , from whom he had separated by partition in relation to that asset on the death of the father intestate on July 17, 1965. The controversy was whether the amount inherited by Chander Sen would constitute the asset of the Hindu undivided family of Chander Sen. The case of the assessee before the Supreme Court was that under the Hindu law he inherited the property of his father as a karta of his Hindu undivided family. The Supreme Court considered the above submission of the assessee and observed : "There is no dispute among the commentators on Hindu law nor in the decisions of the courts that, under the Hindu law, as it is, the son would inherit the same as karta of his own family. But the question is, what is the effect of section 8 of the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t in case of doubt and not to the pre-existing Hindu law. It would be difficult to hold today that property which devolved on a Hindu under section 8 of the Hindu Succession Act would be Hindu undivided family property in his hands vis-a-vis his own son ; that would amount to creating two classes among the heirs mentioned in Class I, the male heirs in whose hands it will be joint Hindu family property vis-a-vis their sons and female heirs with respect to whom no such concept could be applied or contemplated. It may be mentioned that heirs in Class I of the Schedule under section 8 of the Act included widow, mother, daughter of a predeceased son, etc.... The express words of section 8 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, cannot be ignored and ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
