LAWS(ALL)-1955-8-24

GOPI NATH AGARWAL Vs. COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX

Decided On August 24, 1955
GOPI NATH AGARWAL Appellant
V/S
COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX, U.P. ANDAMP; V.P. Respondents

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE assessee in the relevant account year ending with 9-7-1942, in respect of the assessment year 1943-44 was a Hindu undivided family carrying on a business in the name of Gopi Nath Agarwal and it consisted of Gopi Nath Agarwal himself and his two sons, Moti Lal and Murli Dhar. THE family disrupted on 9-7-1942, and thereafter the business was carried on by a partnership firm in the same name of Gopi Nath Agarwal.

(2.) LEARNED counsel for the assessee has taken us through the judgment of the income Tax Appellate Tribunal and has criticised it strongly on the ground that the Tribunal has completely ignored the fact that the burden of proof that the income of Firm Harish Chandra Satish Chandra was the income of the assessee lay on the Department and has dealt with the case as if the burden lay on the assessee to show the reverse.

(3.) THERE remain two other circumstances for consideration. One was that, out of the three partners of this firm, only one Harish Chandra was the active partner. It has not been held by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal that Harish Chandra was incapable of managing this business or that Gopi Nath Agarwal was actually carrying on this business. The mere fact that the other two partners, Kailash Nath and Satishchandra minor, were not doing the work of the business is, therefore, of no significance whatsoever and, in any case, this circumstance cannot possibly lead to the inference that this was not the business of the partners and was the business of the assessee. The other circumstance is that the prices of certain goods sold by that firm were paid by the purchasers to the assessee instead of being paid direct to the firm.