Association of individuals requires common purpose; Muslim heirs remained tenants-in-common and could not be taxed on that basis.

For agricultural income-tax purposes, an association of individuals requires a common purpose or common action to earn income, profits or gains. Mere joint possession, joint management, pooling of income, or common cultivation by Muslim heirs does not create such an association. On inheritance, the heirs take specified shares as tenants-in-common, each with a separate and definite interest in the property, and continued joint management does not change that character. On the facts, there was no common venture or collective bargain to earn agricultural income, so assessment on the basis of an association of individuals was unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether, on the death of a Muslim landowner, the heirs were assessable to agricultural income-tax as an association of individuals or as tenants-in-common.

Analysis: The statutory concept of an association of individuals requires a common purpose or common action aimed at earning income, profits, or gains. Mere joint possession, joint management, pooling of income, or common cultivation by heirs does not by itself create such an association. On inheritance, Muslim heirs take specified shares as tenants-in-common, each having a separate and definite interest in the property, and continued joint management does not alter that status. The facts showed no common venture or collective bargain to earn agricultural income.

Conclusion: The heirs were not an association of individuals but tenants-in-common, and the revisional order directing assessment on the former basis was unsustainable.

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