9911796707
TMI Blog1997 (4) TMI 63X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... l income-tax ? " The abovesaid question arose from the following facts. One Muthusamy Odayar of Pillarnatham village was the grandfather of the assessee. The assessee's father was one Palanisamy Odayar. Muthusamy Odayar had admittedly some ancestral property. Subsequently, from the income of that ancestral property as also from the personal earnings of the grandfather, father and the assessee, some further properties were acquired. The original ancestral properties as well as the subsequently acquired properties were the subject-matter of partition between Muthusamy Odayar, Palanisamy Odayar and the assessee in an oral partition on August 5, 1954, and each one of them was thereafter enjoying the properties allotted to them separately. To ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... essment came to be made by the assessing authority treating the assessee as an individual. On these facts, the assessee, in the assessment year 1977-78, before the Assessing Officer submitted that inasmuch as there was settlement of the properties in the individual names of the members of the joint family, the income derived from the lands settled on the members of the Hindu undivided family cannot be assessed in the hands of the assessee. The assessee filed a return in form No. II, furnishing an income of Rs. 7,000 and declaring his status as Hindu undivided family. The Agricultural Income-tax Officer made an assessment treating the status as individual and determining the net income at Rs. 55,875. In making the assessment, he included t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rs cannot be clubbed with that of the assessee, and (iii) that the appellant, the assessee herein, will be assessable as an individual on 1/21 share of the property of the grand mother and the remaining 20/21 share is not assessable in the hands of the assessee as individual or as a Hindu undivided family. Accordingly, the Tribunal set aside the assessment and remanded the matter back to the Agricultural Income-tax Officer for appropriate computation of the income in respect of the lands held by the assessee. As against this order, the State preferred T. C. No. 1226 of 1979. When this tax case came up for consideration, the Division Bench expressed the view that in the decision in State of Tamil Nadu v. P. Ganesa Udayar [1988] 172 ITR 199 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d the Income-tax Act does not indicate that a Hindu undivided family as an assessable entity must consist of at least two male members. Under section 3 of the Income-tax Act not a Hindu coparcenary but a Hindu undivided family is one of the assessable entities. A Hindu joint family consists of all persons lineally descended from a common ancestor, and includes their wives and unmarried daughters. A Hindu coparcenary is a much narrower body than the joint family ; it includes only those persons who acquire by birth an interest in the joint or coparcenary property, these being the sons, grandsons, and great grandsons of the holder of the joint property for the time being. Similarly, while considering the provisions of sections 4(1), 8, 19 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... in the case of CIT v. P. L. Karuppan Chettiar [1992] 197 ITR 646, the Supreme Court while considering section 8 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, held that the income from the property inherited by a son on the death of his father was not assessable as the income of the joint family since the property is inherited under section 8 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956. In view of the foregoing decisions, we have got to hold that the lands in the name of the father of the assessee, were inherited by the assessee, as the son of his father, and the income derived from such land cannot be assessed in the status of a Hindu undivided family because under section 8 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, the property inherited from the father will be th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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