Hindu undivided family means coparcenary property; self-acquired assets stay individual income unless clearly thrown into common stock.

For income-tax purposes, a Hindu undivided family denotes a Hindu coparcenary with joint family property or income, not merely a wider Hindu family living together. Where the capital invested in a firm was self-acquired or gifted, and there was no proof that it had been thrown into common stock or that separate rights were abandoned, the partnership income remained individual income. In the absence of an ancestral nucleus or, for assessees without sons, any coparcenary at all, the income could not be assessed in the hands of a Hindu undivided family and was properly taxed as the assessees' individual income.

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Issues: Whether the assessees' interests in the partnership income were assessable as the income of a Hindu undivided family or as individual income under the Income-tax Act, 1922.

Analysis: The expression "Hindu undivided family" in the Income-tax Act was held to refer to a Hindu coparcenary, not merely to a wider Hindu family living together. The Act was treated as concerned with income or property capable of taxation, which presupposes joint family property or income. On the facts found, the capital introduced into the firm was self-acquired or gifted property, there was no proof that any assessees had thrown their property or earnings into common stock, and no intention to abandon separate rights was established. In the cases of the assessees without sons, no coparcenary could exist; in the cases of the others, the absence of ancestral nucleus and the absence of common stock meant the property remained separate.

Conclusion: The answer was in the negative. The income was not assessable as that of a Hindu undivided family and was rightly assessed in the hands of the assessees as individuals.

Ratio Decidendi: For the purposes of the Income-tax Act, a Hindu undivided family denotes a Hindu coparcenary with joint family property or income, and self-acquired property does not become joint family property unless it is clearly thrown into common stock with an intention to abandon separate rights.

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