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1961 (8) TMI 8 - SC - Income TaxWhether the appropriate Legislature had the competence to enact section 16(3)(a)(i) and (ii) of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922 (XI of 1922)? Whether the husband is statutorily made to pay certain amount as tax on the income of his wife, to that extent, he is deprived of his property by the State action and, therefore, his fundamental right under section 19(1)(f) is infringed? Held that:- The reasonableness or otherwise of a classification has to be decided with reference to all the circumstances of the case including the social and economic structure prevalent in the area where the taxing statute is in operation. An attempt to prevent by legeislation an evasion of just tax liability and the necessary classification to give effect to that object cannot, in our view, be termed unreasonable. Mode of taxation may be a little hard on a husband or a father in the case of genuine partnership with wife, or minor children, but that is offset, to a large extent, by the beneficient results that flow therefrom to the public, namely, the prevention of evasion of income-tax, and also by the fact that, by and large, the additional payment of tax made on the income of the wife or the minor children will ultimately be borne by them in the final accounting between them. In these circumstances, we cannot say that the provisions of section 16(3) of the Act impose an unreasonable restriction on the fundamental rights of the petitioner under article 19(1)(f) and (g) of the Constitution. Appeal dismissed.
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