TMI Blog1964 (9) TMI 7X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... or the promotion of any joint enterprise to earn income, profits or gains. The collection of the entire income from the estate by one of the sharers or even by a common employee will not make that income an income from a joint venture. Each of the sharers gets his income as an individual and not as an association of individuals. In this view, the High Court was right in answering the first question in favour of the respondent. Whether section 6(e) of the Act applies or section 14(5)(a) of the Hyderabad Income-tax Act, 1357F., applies, the respondent would be entitled to a deduction from his income of the expenditure incurred by him for the maintenance of the palace and other buildings of the estate. The answer given by the High Court to ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... it was handed over to Raja Ratan Gopal with effect from May 1, 1950. During that period each of the heirs was being given 1/4 share of the income of the estate. On May 9, 1950, the Secretary to the Board of Revenue wrote a letter to Raja Ratan Gopal informing him that the four brothers were declared heirs to the estate and they were entitled to the same. Indeed, after the brothers succeeded to the estate, they were filing separate returns of their income under the Hyderabad Income-tax Act and each one of them was individually assessed thereunder. After the abolition of the jagirs, it appears from the certificate of the jagir administrator that the commutation amount was paid to all the four as equal shareholders in the estate. For the asses ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... its opinion : (i) Whether in the circumstances of the case the income of the estate can be assessed on the unitary basis as the income of an association of individuals or whether the income of the assessee has to be assessed for the purposes of agricultural income-tax at 1/4th of the income of the estate after deducting the allowables, and (2) Whether the item of expenditure of Rs. 47,574 being the expenditure for the palace maintenance and other buildings of the estate is not liable to be deducted as admissible expenditure under clause (a) or clause (b) of sub-section (5) of section 14 of the Hyderabad Income-tax Act, 1357 Fasli, as expenditure not being private or personal but incurred in connection with the administration of the estate o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ther, either as owner, trustee, receiver, common manager, administrator or executor or in any capacity recognized by law, and includes an undivided Hindu family, firm or company. " A combined reading of these two provisions indicates that assessment can be made on an individual or an association of individuals. The question is whether the respondent should be assessed as an individual or along with his co-sharers as an " association of individuals ". The expression " association of individuals " was found in the Indian Income-tax Act, before the words " association of persons " were substituted by the amendment Act of 1939. The word " person" is more comprehensive than the word " individual ". But the meaning given to that expression as a u ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t the question must depend on the particular facts and circumstances of each case. On the facts found in that case, the court held that the widows were only co-heirs of the estate of the deceased husband and that they could not be assessed as an association of persons within the meaning of section 3 of the Indian Income-tax Act. This court again in Mohamed Noorullah v. Commissioner of Income-tax considered the question in the context of an income realized by receivers appointed by consent of the heirs to run the business of the deceased, Khan Sahib Mohamed Oomer Sahib. Kapur J., speaking for the court, laid down the same test accepted by this court in the earlier judgment and held that on the facts of that case the co-heirs, who carried on ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of the Act. It is not clear from the record when the assessment was completed. We shall assume that it was completed before April 1, 1950. Section 51(3) of the Act reads : " Where the assessment of the income-tax payable by an assessee for the year 1359F. under the said Act has not been completed before the 1st day of April, 1950, the tax so payable shall be assessed in accordance with the provisions of the said Act on the assessee's agricultural income as defined in this Act of the previous year as determined under the said Act, and appeals from, and all other proceedings arising out of the assessment shall be regulated by this Act. " This section cannot have any application for the assessment in question, for it was completed before A ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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