Section 25A applies only to proved Hindu undivided families claiming partition, not to challenges to the family status itself.

Section 25A of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922 applies only where a Hindu undivided family is accepted to have existed and a partition is claimed in definite portions. It does not prevent an assessee from disputing the very basis of an earlier family assessment or from proving that no Hindu undivided family ever existed. A mistaken prior assessment as family property does not create estoppel or res judicata against that challenge. On that reasoning, the statutory partition machinery was inapplicable, and the assessee was entitled to contest the earlier family assessment.

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Issues: Whether Section 25A of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922 barred the assessee from disputing the earlier assessment of the family as a Hindu undivided family and whether prior treatment of property as family property required proof of partition of joint family property in definite portions before the assessee could obtain relief.

Analysis: Section 25A applies where a Hindu family hitherto assessed as undivided seeks recognition of a partition and must satisfy the Income Tax Officer that the joint family property has been partitioned among the members or groups in definite portions. The provision does not govern a case where the assessee's primary stand is that he was never a member of a Hindu undivided family with the persons against whom the assessment was made, and that the earlier assessment was mistaken. Prior mistaken assessment as a Hindu undivided family does not create an estoppel or res judicata barring the assessee from proving the true legal character of the arrangement in a later year. If the facts show that there never was a Hindu undivided family, the statutory machinery of Section 25A is inapplicable.

Conclusion: Section 25A(3) did not bar the Income Tax Officer from examining whether the assessee had been wrongly assessed as a member of a Hindu undivided family, and Section 25A(1) was not attracted to such a case. The answer was in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The reference was disposed of by holding that the assessee was entitled to dispute the foundation of the earlier family assessment, and the statutory requirement of partition in definite portions did not control a case where the existence of a Hindu undivided family itself was denied.

Ratio Decidendi: Section 25A applies only where a Hindu undivided family is conceded to exist and partition is claimed; it does not preclude an assessee from showing that no such family ever existed and that the earlier assessment was .

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