Post-death receipts from pre-death work were held outside income-tax under deceased-person assessment rules.

Section 24B permits assessment only of income that accrued to or was received by a deceased person during lifetime, or tax attributable to such income, through the legal representative. It does not extend to post-death receipts that are capital in the hands of the heirs or representatives, even if they arise from work done before death. On that footing, sums realised after the partner's death from pre-death work were not assessable to income-tax in the hands of the entity representing the legal heirs. The reference was answered against the Revenue.

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Issues: Whether the sums realised after the death of the deceased partner from pre-death work were assessable to income-tax in the hands of the entity representing his legal heirs under section 24B.

Analysis: Section 24B applies to tax on the income of a deceased person and authorises assessment through the executor, administrator or other legal representative only in respect of income which had accrued to or been received by the deceased during his lifetime, or tax which would have been payable by him had he not died. The provision does not extend to receipts which, in the hands of the legal heirs or representatives, are not income of the deceased but are capital in nature. The realisations in question, though traceable to work done by the deceased, were received after death and could not be equated with income of the deceased person. The cited authorities did not support a wider construction of section 24B.

Conclusion: The sums were not assessable to income-tax in the hands of the assessee under section 24B, and the answer to the reference was against the Revenue.

Ratio Decidendi: Section 24B authorises assessment only of income that was that of the deceased person during life, or tax properly attributable to such income, and does not cover post-death receipts which are capital in the hands of the legal representatives.

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