Separate property on partition remains individual property absent male issue; tenancy-in-common under abolition law was rejected.

Property allotted to a coparcener on partition remains his separate property where there is no male issue in existence and no later birth or adoption changes its character, and it does not become joint family property merely because a female member survives in the household. On that basis, the Kerala Hindu Joint Family System (Abolition) Act, 1975 did not convert the coparcener and his wife into tenants-in-common, and the income from the property was assessable in the coparcener's individual hands. A revision for the 1976-77 assessment year was treated as incompetent because the Revenue had no surviving grievance.

---

---

Issues: (i) Whether the revision concerning the assessment year 1976-77 was maintainable when the Revenue was not aggrieved by the orders below; (ii) whether the property obtained by the assessee under the partition deed dated 29 March 1975 was separate property or joint family property so as to attract treatment of the assessee and his wife as tenants-in-common under the Kerala Hindu Joint Family System (Abolition) Act, 1975.

Issue (i): Whether the revision concerning the assessment year 1976-77 was maintainable when the Revenue was not aggrieved by the orders below.

Analysis: The revision for the assessment year 1976-77 did not arise out of any grievance surviving to the Revenue, as the earlier appellate orders had not adversely affected it. The proceeding was therefore treated as incompetent and unnecessary.

Conclusion: The revision for the assessment year 1976-77 was not maintainable and was dismissed.

Issue (ii): Whether the property obtained by the assessee under the partition deed dated 29 March 1975 was separate property or joint family property so as to attract treatment of the assessee and his wife as tenants-in-common under the Kerala Hindu Joint Family System (Abolition) Act, 1975.

Analysis: Property received by a coparcener on partition, where there is no male issue in existence and no subsequent birth or adoption to alter its character, is separate property as against other relations. On the relevant date when the Kerala Hindu Joint Family System (Abolition) Act, 1975 came into force, the assessee's wife had no proprietary interest in that property. The property could not be treated as joint family property, and section 4(2) did not convert the assessee and his wife into tenants-in-common in respect of that separate property.

Conclusion: The property was held to be the assessee's separate property, the status of tenants-in-common was rejected, and the entire income was assessable in the assessee's hands as an individual.

Final Conclusion: The common order of the Tribunal was set aside on the substantive status question, the matter for the assessment years 1978-79, 1979-80 and 1980-81 was remitted for fresh orders in accordance with law, and the Revenue succeeded on the principal legal issue.

Ratio Decidendi: A property allotted to a coparcener on partition, in the absence of any male issue or other legally recognized basis for its transformation, remains his separate property as against the rest of the family and does not become joint family property merely because a female member survives in the household.

---