Gift-tax notice jurisdiction failed where the Act did not define a partnership firm as a taxable person.

Under the Gift-tax Act, 1958, a partnership firm could not be treated as a taxable "person" because section 2(xviii) did not expressly include firms, unlike the Income-tax Act, 1961. On that statutory basis, assessment or recovery notices under section 16(1) could not validly be addressed to the firm itself without express legislative authority. The jurisdictional objection was confined to the validity of the notices, not to any proposed assessment on the merits, and the notices were therefore invalid when issued directly against the firm.

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Issues: Whether notices issued under section 16(1) of the Gift-tax Act, 1958, could validly be addressed to and proceeded against a partnership firm which was not included within the statutory definition of a "person" under the Act.

Analysis: The definition of "person" in section 2(xviii) of the Gift-tax Act, 1958, did not include a firm in express terms, unlike the wider definition contained in the Income-tax Act, 1961. The statutory scheme therefore did not support treating a partnership firm as an assessable entity for the purpose of gift-tax notices. Since the notices were issued directly against the firm, the authority lacked jurisdiction to proceed against it under the Act. The challenge was confined to jurisdiction and not to the merits of any proposed assessment.

Conclusion: The notices issued against the partnership firm were jurisdiction and invalid, and the writ petitioners succeeded on this issue.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a taxing statute does not include a partnership firm within the definition of "person", the revenue authorities cannot validly issue assessment or recovery notices against the firm itself in the absence of express statutory authority.

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