INCOME TAX OFFICER Vs. KHANJAN LAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS special appeal has been filed against the judgment of a learned single judge of this court in Writ Petition No. 2135 of 1959.

(2.) THERE was a firm, Khanjan Lal Sewak Ram, which consisted of six partners who fell into two groups; one group consisted of Khanjan Lal, Lalloo Ram, Dwarka Prasad and Ram Lal and the other group consisted of Sewak Ram and Jagrani. We are concerned with the payment of income-tax by the partners of the firm for the year 1948-49. The total tax liability of the firm was Rs. 68,709-4-0. The liability of the two partners of the second group was Rs. 17,177-6-0. The position in law, however, is that the tax was realisable from all the partners jointly and severally. The Income-tax Officer, appellant No. 1, wrote a letter No. A. R. No. 27-K-STP dated February 24, 1953, to Khanjan Lal, the first petitioner in the writ petition, which reads as follows :

(3.) APPELLANT No, 1 was obviously conscious of his difficulty arising out of the fact that the tax was not being realised from the other partners. In paragraph 7 of the counter-affidavit we find the following :