Transferred property cannot be proceeded against for tax arrears unless statutory recovery conditions against the transferor are first satisfied.

Recovery proceedings against property transferred by an assessee can be invoked under the proviso to section 23 of the Kerala Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1950 only after the statutory conditions precedent are satisfied. The arrears remained recoverable from the transferor, and it was not shown that he could not be found or that recovery from him had failed. Because those prerequisites were not established, the notice seeking recovery and attachment of the transferred property was unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether recovery proceedings could be enforced against property transferred to the assessee's predecessor in interest in the absence of satisfaction of the statutory conditions in the proviso to section 23 of the Kerala Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1950.

Analysis: Liability to pay arrears of agricultural income-tax remained on the transferor assessee. The proviso to section 23 permitted recourse against transferred property only if the statutory prerequisites were satisfied. On the facts, it was not shown that the transferor could not be found or that the assessed tax could not be recovered from him. Those requirements were treated as conditions precedent to proceeding against the transferred property, and their absence rendered the recovery notice unsustainable.

Conclusion: Recovery against the transferred property was not permissible, and the challenge to the demand and attachment notice succeeded.

Ratio Decidendi: Proceedings against property transferred by an assessee under the proviso to section 23 of the Kerala Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1950 can be taken only when the statutory conditions precedent for recovery from the transferor are first satisfied.

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