Section 155 amendment powers upheld for clubbing minor daughters' share income with the assessee under income-tax law.

Section 155 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 was treated as an independent power to amend a partner's assessment where the firm's assessment or reassessment showed that share income had not been correctly included. The provision was held not to be confined to a "mistake apparent from the record" under section 154, and the absence of the older statutory fiction from the 1922 Act did not narrow its operation. On the facts, clubbing the minor daughters' share income with the assessee's income under section 64 was not a debatable issue and the amendment was within jurisdiction. The reference was answered in the affirmative and the assessment was upheld.

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Issues: Whether the Income-tax Officer could invoke section 155 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 to amend the assessee's completed assessments and club the share income of the minor daughters with the assessee's income under section 64 of the Act.

Analysis: Section 155 confers an independent power to amend the assessment of a partner where, on the assessment or reassessment of the firm, the partner's share income has not been included or is not correct. The provision does not proceed on the footing of a mistake apparent from the record in the sense in which section 154 operates. The statutory fiction found in section 35(5) of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, is absent in section 155 of the 1961 Act, and the latter therefore is not confined to obvious clerical or patent errors. The inclusion of the minors' share income in the assessee's assessment was not a debatable matter on the facts, particularly in view of the concession recorded before the appellate authority that the minors' income was to be clubbed. The earlier authorities relied on by the assessee were distinguished, while the cases supporting mandatory clubbing of spouse and minor children's income under section 64 were treated as governing the position.

Conclusion: The reference was answered in the affirmative. Section 155 validly applied, and the order clubbing the minors' share income in the assessee's assessment was within jurisdiction and was upheld against the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: Section 155 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 empowers amendment of a partner's assessment on the firm's assessment or reassessment without requiring the case to fall within the narrower concept of a mistake apparent from the record under section 154; where section 64 mandates inclusion, the assessment can be correspondingly amended under section 155.

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