Remand-based assessments remain dependent on the remand order, and transfer-tax provisions can apply to pre-enactment transfers.

An assessment made in obedience to a remand order remains contingent on the fate of that remand; where the superior authority later sets the remand aside, the assessment made under it also falls and is not immune from challenge. The court also held that section 4A of the Agricultural Income-tax Act operated on the income arising in the relevant assessment year, not on the date of transfer, and contained no express restriction to post-enactment transfers. It therefore applied to pre-1953 transfers where the assessed income arose after the provision came into force, and the challenge to the assessment failed.

---

---

Issues: (i) whether the assessment made by the assessing authority pursuant to the remand order became immune from challenge when the remand order was later set aside in revision; (ii) whether section 4A of the Agricultural Income-tax Act applied to transfers made before its insertion.

Issue (i): whether the assessment made by the assessing authority pursuant to the remand order became immune from challenge when the remand order was later set aside in revision.

Analysis: An order passed by a trial or assessing authority in obedience to a remand order remains subject to the ultimate result of the appeal or revision against the remand order. In the absence of a stay, the authority must comply with the remand, but any step taken under that remand falls with the remand order if the superior authority later sets it aside.

Conclusion: The assessment made on remand did not survive the later setting aside of the remand order.

Issue (ii): whether section 4A of the Agricultural Income-tax Act applied to transfers made before its insertion.

Analysis: The section was treated as operating on the income arising in the relevant assessment year and not on the date of transfer. Its language showed no limitation confining it to post-enactment transfers, and the court relied on the analogous interpretation of a similar income-tax provision to hold that the statutory charge extended to pre-enactment transfers where the assessed income arose after the provision came into force.

Conclusion: Section 4A applied to pre-1953 transfers and the petitioner's objection failed.

Final Conclusion: The writ petitions failed on both grounds and the assessment including the income from the transferred family properties was upheld.

Ratio Decidendi: An assessment made in compliance with a remand order remains dependent on the validity of that remand, and a provision taxing income from transferred assets operates on the income of the relevant assessment year unless the statute expressly limits it by the date of transfer.

---