Legal representative liability cannot attach to a non-existent Hindu undivided family; notice under agricultural income-tax law was invalid.

Section 24 of the Karnataka Agricultural Income-tax Act applies where a natural person dies during the assessment year, making legal representatives liable only for the deceased's lifetime income. That liability cannot be extended to a Hindu undivided family that has ceased to exist, because a family requires plurality of persons and no legal fiction can deem a non-existent unit to continue. The petitioner therefore could not be treated as a legal representative of the defunct HUF, and the notice issued under the Act was invalid.

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Issues: Whether, on the death of the karta and disappearance of the Hindu undivided family, the petitioner could be treated as a legal representative liable to file a return and whether the notice issued under the Karnataka Agricultural Income-tax Act was valid.

Analysis: Section 24 of the Karnataka Agricultural Income-tax Act applies to a natural person who dies during an assessment year and makes the legal representatives liable in respect of income earned by the deceased during his lifetime. That provision cannot be extended to a case where the Hindu undivided family itself has ceased to exist. The concept of a family requires plurality of persons, and a single member cannot constitute a Hindu undivided family. Once the family disappears, there is no existing unit on which an assessment can be continued, and no legal fiction can be created to deem a non-existent family to continue. The reasoning was supported by the construction placed on section 171 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, in similar circumstances.

Conclusion: The petitioner could not be made liable as legal representative of a non-existent Hindu undivided family, and the notice was invalid.

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