NARAYANASWAMY P G Vs. COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The question referred for our opinion under S.256(1) of the Income tax Act, 1961 is this:

(2.) The assessment year in question is 1979-80. The assessee who was a member of a Hindu Undivided Family separated from the family on 2-9-1974 He was thereafter assessed as individual upto and inclusive of 1978-79. He got married on 12-6-1978. In the assessment for 1979-80, these assessee claimed the status of H. U. F. in respect of the share income from the firm in which he was a partner. The Income tax Officer rejected the claim and held that in view of the Kerala Hindu Joint Family (Abolition) Act, 1975 which came into force on 1-12-1976, the assessee cannot claim the status of H.U.F. The Appellate Assistant Commissioner confirmed the assessment. The Appellate Tribunal held that in view of the abolition of the Hindu Joint Family System by the Kerala Act, no H.U.F. consisting of the assessee and his wife came into existence. The assessment on the assessee as an individual was, therefore, confirmed. The question of law was referred at the instance of the assessee.

(3.) Sri P. K. G. Warrier, learned counsel for the assessee. contended before us that the property obtained by the petitioner as his share in the joint family revived the ancestral character on the assessee getting married and a joint family must be deemed to have come into existence on such marriage in the absence of any specific provision in the Kerala Act repugnant to this rule of the Hindu Law, the general law is to prevail and the assessment could have been made only in the status of H U. F. As held by this Court in W. T. O. v. Madhavan Nambiar, W.A. No. 159 of 1981, there can be no joint Hindu family