Common management does not trigger joint assessment where gifted land is separately owned by the donees.

Section 13 of the Assam Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1939 applies only where agricultural income is held or managed on behalf of persons who remain jointly interested in the land or the income. Where an owner executes registered gift deeds dividing a tea estate into separate halves and each donee becomes the absolute owner of his portion, the existence of a common manager for convenience does not by itself create the joint interest required by the provision. On those facts, assessment on a common-manager basis is not attracted, though separate assessment of the co-owners may be examined on the relevant records.

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Issues: Whether section 13 of the Assam Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1939 applied so as to permit assessment on a common manager where the tea estate had been divided by registered gift deeds and the donees had become absolute owners of separate halves.

Analysis: Section 13 applies where land yielding agricultural income is held by a common manager, receiver, administrator or the like on behalf of persons jointly interested in the land or the income derived from it. The material facts showed that the original owner had executed two registered gift deeds, each duly accepted, whereby one half of the tea estate was gifted to one son and the remaining half to the other. In the absence of any document showing that the brothers agreed to run the estate jointly or retained a common beneficial interest in either half, each donee became the absolute owner of the portion gifted to him. The existence of a common manager for convenience of management did not create the joint interest required by section 13.

Conclusion: Section 13 was not applicable, and the challenge to the assessment failed.

Final Conclusion: The assessment could not be shifted to the common-manager basis under section 13, though separate assessment of the co-owners could be considered on production of relevant records.

Ratio Decidendi: Section 13 of the Assam Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1939 applies only where the income is derived on behalf of persons who remain jointly interested in the land or income; mere common management after a valid bifurcation of ownership does not attract the provision.

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