Statutory fiction in deceased-tax assessments cannot extend to post-death partnership receipts treated as the deceased's income.

Section 24B, as a machinery provision for assessing a deceased person's income and recovering tax from representatives, could not be stretched beyond its limited purpose. Applying the rule that a statutory fiction must be confined to the object for which it is created, the Court held that post-death receipts from a deceased partner's share in firms maintaining cash-basis accounts were not income of the deceased for the relevant period. The sum received after death was therefore not includible in the deceased assessee's total income, and the reference was answered in favour of the assessee.

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Issues: Whether the sum of Rs. 71,279 received after the death of a partner from firms maintaining accounts on cash basis was includible in the total income of the deceased assessee's estate under section 24B of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922.

Analysis: The reference turned on the scope of section 24B, which is a machinery provision intended to enable assessment of the income of a deceased person and recovery from representatives. The Court applied the settled rule that a legal fiction must be confined to the purpose for which it is created and cannot be extended to impose a liability that the deceased himself did not incur. The amount in question represented receipts from the deceased partner's share arising after death, and the firms kept their accounts on cash basis. On the authorities relied upon, such post-death receipts could not be treated as income of the deceased for the relevant period.

Conclusion: The sum of Rs. 71,279 was not liable to be included in the total income of the assessee under section 24B; the answer to the referred question was in the negative and in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: A statutory fiction enacted as a machinery provision for assessment of a deceased person's income cannot be extended to create a tax liability on post-death receipts that are not income of the deceased.

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