STATE OF TAMIL NADU Vs. P GANESA UDAYAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Tax Cases Nos. 361 of 1978 and 1219 of 1979 arise out of a common judgment rendered by the Tribunal in respect of the assessments made under the Agricultural Income-tax Act for the assessment years 1975-76 and 1976-77 on the respondent/assessee. The other three cases arise out of the orders of the Tribunal in respect of the assessments made for the assessment years 1972-73, 1973-74 and 1974-75 in relation to the same respondent. Hence, the question involved in all these cases being the same, they are dealt with together. However, it is unnecessary to refer to the facts with reference to each case and it will suffice to refer to the facts in Tax Case No. 361 of 1978 in which the Tribunal has given the main judgment.

(2.) The assessee in all these cases is one Ganesa Udayar of Pilliarnatham, Kallaperambur Post, Thanjavur Taluk. For the year 1975-76, there was an assessment under the Agricultural Income-tax Act wherein all the lands in his possession and enjoyment were assessed in his hands as an individual. The assessee objected to the said assessment by filing an appeal before the Commissioner of Income-tax (Agricultural) on the ground that the assessment should have been made on him in the status of a Hindu undivided family and not in the status of an individual. The Assistant Commissioner, however, did not accept the assessee's contention. The assessee thereafter went before the Tribunal and reiterated the same contention that the assessment should be made on him in the status of a Hindu undivided family and not as an individual. The Tribunal has chosen to accept the assessee's contention and set aside the assessment made on the assessee in his individual capacity and directed the assessment to be made on the assessee in the status of a Hindu undivided family. A similar order was passed for the assessment year 1976-77 and that is the subject-matter of Tax Case No. 1219 of 1979. When the assessments relating to the assessment years 1972-73, 1973-74 and 1974-75 came to be questioned before the Tribunal subsequently, the Tribunal followed its earlier decision in the first batch with reference to the assessment years 1975-76 and 1976-77 and held that the assessment should be made on the assessee only in the status of a Hindu undivided family and not in the status of an individual. The said order of the Tribunal directing the assessment to be made on the assessee as Hindu undivided family has been challenged in these tax revision cases.

(3.) The facts as found by the Tribunal are as follows : One Muthusamy Odayar of Pilliarnatham village was the grandfather of the assessee in these cases. 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 confirm the oral partition, a partition deed came to be executed on August 7, 1959. According to the said partition deed, Muthusamy Odayar got 27.26 acres, Palanisamy Odayar 25.15 acres and the assessee got 37.98 acres. Certain lands were given away to five sisters of the assessee. Out of the lands got by the partition, the assessee settled 13.96 acres in the name of his minor daughter, Parimalam, and 13.34 acres in the name of another minor daughter, Vimala, under a document dated November 25, 1959. The settlement deed stated that the settlements have been made by the assessee for the purpose of providing for the education, marriage, etc., of the minor daughters. The deed also stated that the title and possession have been given to the settlees with immediate effect. Muthusamy Odayar settled the properties obtained by him in the partition in a settlement deed dated May 15, 1960, under which an extent of 13.10 acres had been settled in favour of his brother, Appathurai Odayar, and an extent of 14.21 acres in favour of his wife, Subbammal. Subsequent to these documents, the grandfather, Muthusamy Odayar, grandmother, Subbammal and the father, Palanisamy Odayar, have all died. The assessee's father, Palanisamy Odayar, appears to have acquired 3.50 acres before his death. The assessee also acquired 9.38 acres and 9.29 acres and held them in the benami names of Anthonisamy and Natesa Odayar. Having regard to the lands in the actual possession and enjoyment of the assessee, the assessment came to be made by the assessing authority treating the assessee an individual. The lands so assessed are :