9911796707
TMI Blog1986 (2) TMI 46X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ngh died on September 18, 1960, leaving behind several assets including a house in the town of Patna known as " Sita Ram Sadan " on Boring Road. This house is the bone of contention between the assessee and the Revenue. The stand of the Revenue is that it was part of the estate of the deceased " individual " and passed on his death to his son, Paras Nath Singh, the accountable person. The stand of the assessee was that this house was the joint property of the Hindu undivided family of the deceased and hence only his interest in the house passed to his heirs on his death. The Assistant Controller, the Appellate Controller as well as the Appellate Tribunal have rejected the stand of the assessee. Hence, the present reference before us at the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... house whereas the house " Sita Ram Sadan " at Patna had always been shown by the deceased in his income-tax returns as his individual property. Upon these facts, it has to be decided whether the house was rightly held to be individual property of the deceased and which passed to the accountable person on the death of the deceased. Mr. L. N. Sinha, learned counsel for the assessee, submitted that the Appellate Controller having found that the Hindu undivided family had an income between Rs. 15,000 to Rs 20,000 from the zamindari and Rs. 1,500 to Rs. 5,000 from Kastkari, it failed to appreciate that the burden of establishing that the property fell within the taxing statute was on the Revenue. According to him, the Tribunal further failed t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... uiring separate property separate from the Hindu undivided family. In this case, it will be appreciated that there are some very glaring circumstances staring at the assessee in the face. The first is that the deceased had personal/separate income apart from the income from the Hindu undivided family property. This was by virtue of his service in the Tekari Raj. The second is that there is/was house at Murgawan which the deceased accepted as Hindu undivided family property. The third circumstance is that the deceased who was the karta of the Hindu undivided family was the best person to say which property was Hindu undivided family and which property was separate acquisition. He, in his income-tax returns year after year, showed this proper ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ed. No material was produced before the Revenue to show that it was Hindu undivided family property. The volition of the deceased in including this house in his individual income-tax returns is a very telling circumstance and speaks volumes against the accountable person. I cannot conclude this judgment without referring to the submission urged on behalf of the assessee based on the benami character of the property. The submission was that the Department having alleged that the property was benami of Kedarnath Singh, individual, the onus was upon it to establish that benami character. The submission lacks substance. It is not in controversy that the house was benami. The assessee as well as the Revenue both alleged that the property did n ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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