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TMI Blog1976 (7) TMI 90X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tition of the Hindu undivided family property and, therefore, she was not a member of the Hindu undivided family. The Appellant Assistant Commissioner rejected the said contention on the ground that it was well settled that a Hindu male along with his wife constituted a Hindu undivided family and that the wife of the Kartha was a member of the Hindu undivided family. Observing that the net wealth of the wife of the Kartha for the year under appeal had exceed Rs. 1 lakh, the Appellate Assistant Commissioner upheld the levy of the higher rate of Wealth-tax. Against this order of the Appellate Assistant Commissioner the assessee has filed this appeal before us. 2. The learned counsel for the assessee Shri Srinivasan vehemently contended that the lower authorities have erred in applying the rate of tax under sub-para 1 (1A) of the schedule to the Wealth-tax Act. He submitted that the wife of the Kartha of the Hindu undivided family cannot be considered to be a member of the Hindu undivided family. He pointed out that the term "member" occurring in sub-para 1(A) of the Schedule to the Wealth-tax Act only refers to a coparcener. Since the wife of the Kartha is not a coparcener, she is n ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... case of every Hindu undivided family which has at least one member whose net wealth assessable for the assessment year exceeds Rs. 1,00,000." In respect of such a Hindu undivided family higher rates of tax are prescribed under the Schedule. The question is whether the assessee family is a family as defined in the above para (1A). The members of the assessee family are three in number, viz. Mr. Samiappa Mudaliar, Mrs. Samiappa Mudaliar and his son. 5. The Supreme Court in the case of N. V. Narendranath vs. Commissioner of Wealth-tax, Andhra Pradesh(1), considered the question of the status of the assessee before it. The assessee therein claimed to be assessed in the status of a Hindu undivided family. During the material time, the assessee family consisted of himself, his wife and his two minor daughters and there was no other male member. The Wealth-tax Officer did not accept this assessee's contention and assessed him as an individual. The Appellate Assistant Commissioner concurred with him. The Tribunal held that he should be assessed in the status of a Hindu undivided family. The High Court disagreed with the view of the Tribunal and held that as the assessee's family did not ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... emale would constitute a family. At page 495 their Lordships observed as under:- "Family" connotes a group of people related by blood or marriage. According to Shorter Oxford English Dictionary 3rd edition, the word "Family" means the group consisting of parents and their children, whether living together or not; in a wider sense, all those who are nearly connected by blood or affinity; a person's children regarded collectively; those descended or claiming descent from a common ancestor; a house kindred, lineage; a race; a people or group of peoples. According to Aristotle (Politics I) it is the characteristic of man that he alone has any sense of good and evil, or just and unjust, and the association of living beings who have this sense make a family and a State. It would follow from the above that the word "family" always signifies a group. Plurality of persons is an essential attribute of a family. A single person, male or female, does not constitute a family. He or she would remain, what is inherent in the very nature of things, an individual, a lonely was farer till per chance he or she finds a mate, A family consisting of single individual is a contradiction in terms. s. 2(3 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... to the holder in unbroken male descent. Since under the Mitakshara law, the right to joint family property by birth is vested in the male issues only, females who come in only as heirs to obstructed heritage (sapratibandhadaya), cannot be coparcenars. But we are concerned under the Income-tax Act with the question whether the appellant's wife and unmarried daughter can with him be members of a Hindu undivided family and not of a coparcenary. In the words of Sir George Rankin, who delivered the opinion of the Judicial Committee in Kalyanji's case, 5 ITR 90: The phrase 'Hindu undivided family is used in the statute with reference not to one school; and their Lordships think it a mistake in method to begin by pasting over the wide phrase of the Act the words 'Hindu coparcenary.' All the more that it is not possible to say on the face of the Act that no female can be a member." Outside the limits of coparcenary, there is a fringe of persons ' males and females' who constitute an undivided or joint family, There is no limit to the number of persons who can compose it nor to their remoteness from the common ancestor and to their relationship with one another. A joint Hindu family cons ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... partition and submitted that the term member only refers to a member who is entitled to claim partition. While the Finance Act, 1973 referred to members of Hindu undivided family entitled to claim partition the First Schedule to the Wealth-tax Act does not refer to member entitled to claim partition. This circumstance in our view makes it abundantly clear that the member of a Hindu undivided family referred to in para (1A) of Part I of the Schedule to the Wealth-tax Act need not be a member entitled to claim partition. If really the Parliament wanted to exclude female members who do not have the claim of partition nothing would have been easier than saying so. The omission of the words " entitled to claim partition" in para (1A) of the Schedule to the Wealth-tax Act brings out the intention of the Parliament very clearly. It is well settled that Court can only interpret the statute as per the words that are found in it and it is not competent for Courts to import words which are not found therein by trying to find out the intendment of the legislature. In other words Court have to enforce the law as they are found in the statute book and it is not competent for them to state what ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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