Case: Appellate Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax, A-Range, Bangalore Vs. Late B. Appaiah Naidu (By His Legal Representative)

1. These are appeals by special leave arising from the decision of the High Court of Mysore in I.T.R.C. No. 14 of 1966. Therein the High Court pronounced its opinion on the two questions of law referred to it by the Commissioner of, Mysore, Bangalore. The two questions referred for its opinion are :      " (a) Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the assessments made under section 23(3) and 26(2) of the Mysorex Act, 1923, of Shri B. A. Sriramamurthy, the legal representative and successor to late Shri B. A. Appaiah Naidu, for the assessment years7 and8 are ab initio bad for the reason that there is no provision in the Mysorex Act, 1923, corresponding to section 24B of the Indianx Act, 1922 ?      (b) Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Appellate Assistant Commissioner of, A Range, is justified in disposing of the appeals merely on the first additional ground involving the legal issue mentioned in question 1 above, considering it as the preliminary issue, without considering the other grounds raised by the appellant before him, one of which grounds is to the effect that the assessee should be given the status of Hindu undivided family and specially when such claim for the status of Hindu undivided family by the assessee has already been referred to the High Court by the assessee for the assessment years1 and2 ? "

Court's reasoning:
Now coming to the second question as noticed earlier, the assessment was made in respect of the income of Appaiah Naidu on his legal representative, his son Sriramamurthy, in the status of an individual and not as the karta of his Hindu undivided family. The department cannot now be permitted to change its case and contend that in reality the assessee is the Hindu undivided family