AGRICULTURAL INCOME TAX OFFICER Vs. PUTHUMOOLE KRISHNA BHAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal from the decision reported in Krishna Bhat v. Agricultural Income Tax Officer ( 1979 KLT 518 ). The material facts necessary to understand the question raised herein are In respect of the agricultural income derived by the assessee from certain properties purchased by him and his six sons, he was, for the years 196667 to 196869 assigned the status of individual. He appealed and the Appellate Assistant Commissioner remanded the cases. He was then assessed for those years as one of the seven tenants in common, each entitled to 1/7th share. Exts. P2 to P4 are the revised assessment orders for the said years. For the subsequent two years, 196970 and 197071, also he was assessed as an individual. He appealed and the Appellate Assistant Commissioner has remitted back these cases also. For the years 197172, 197273 and 197475 the assessment proceedings were on the basis that the petitioner and his six children constituted an association of persons. Exts. P5 to P7 are the assessment orders. The assessee appealed to the Appellate Assistant Commissioner. The latter by Ext. P8 order held that the petitioner respondent is to be treated as an individual and the income derived by his minor children is to be added to his income and assessed in his hands. The Deputy Commissioner (Appeals) on revision confirmed Ext. P8 order as per Ext. P10 order. By the decision under appeal the learned Single Judge held that the assignment in Exts. P5 to P8 and P10 to the assessee of a status different from that assigned to him in Exts. P2 to P4 is not warranted, and on that score quashed the said orders.

(2.) The principle governing such cases, as stated in the judgment under appeal, is: -

(3.) It is not necessary to dilate upon the development of the theory of application (or rather, non application) of the doctrine of res judicata in tax cases, for it is not disputed that that doctrine does not govern tax cases. We would content ourselves by extracting the following summary of law bearing on that point from Spenser-Bower and Turner on res judicata, 2nd Edn. pp. 260-61.