Tribunal may entertain a respondent's fresh plea in appeal, and family business income may be taxed as a body of individuals.

The Tribunal's appellate power is wide enough to allow a respondent to support the challenged decision on a new ground, including a plea raised for the first time, so long as it acts within statutory limits; the fresh plea was therefore entertainable. The note also explains that a body of individuals is a distinct taxable category from an association of persons, requiring plurality of individuals and a common nexus to income, without any need for a shared intention to earn income jointly. On the stated facts, the inherited business continued as a single economic unit without severance, so the widow and her sons were properly assessable as a body of individuals.

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Issues: (i) Whether the Tribunal had jurisdiction to entertain a new plea raised for the first time by the respondent in the assessee's appeal; (ii) Whether the widow and her sons were assessable as a body of individuals for the relevant assessment years.

Issue (i): Whether the Tribunal had jurisdiction to entertain a new plea raised for the first time by the respondent in the assessee's appeal.

Analysis: The appellate power of the Tribunal is wide enough to permit a respondent to support the decision under challenge on a new ground and to have the appeal disposed of on that basis, provided the Tribunal does not travel beyond its statutory limits. The governing principle is that the Tribunal may pass such orders thereon as it thinks fit, and the power to entertain a fresh plea is not excluded merely because it is urged by the respondent. Where necessary, the Tribunal may also remit the matter or examine the facts itself.

Conclusion: The Tribunal had jurisdiction to entertain the respondent's new plea.

Issue (ii): Whether the widow and her sons were assessable as a body of individuals for the relevant assessment years.

Analysis: A body of individuals is a distinct taxable category from an association of persons. Its essential features are plurality of individuals and a nexus, in the aggregate, to a source of income; common intention or active combination is not indispensable. On the facts, the family continued the inherited business as a continuing economic unit, and the absence of severance or separate enjoyment supported assessment as a body of individuals.

Conclusion: The assessees were rightly held assessable as a body of individuals.

Final Conclusion: The reference was answered in favour of the Revenue on both questions, confirming the Tribunal's jurisdiction to entertain the new plea and the assessment of the group as a body of individuals.

Ratio Decidendi: The Tribunal may entertain a fresh plea raised by a respondent in appeal, and a body of individuals is a separate taxable category requiring only plurality of persons with a common nexus to income, not a common intention to earn income jointly.

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