Joint and several tax recovery and garnishee proceedings upheld for firm dues without separate partner notice.

Partners of an unregistered firm are jointly and severally liable for the firm's tax dues, so service of a notice of demand on the firm is sufficient to support recovery from a partner; no separate notice to the partner is required. A garnishee order may also be issued against a third party holding money due to the assessee once the statutory conditions for garnishee recovery are satisfied, and its validity does not depend on first treating the assessee as a defaulter in a strict procedural sense. The challenge to the recovery steps therefore failed.

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Issues: (i) whether a separate notice of demand was required to be served on a partner of an unregistered firm before recovery of the firm's income-tax liability from him; and (ii) whether a garnishee order could validly be issued against a third party without first treating the assessee as a defaulter.

Issue (i): whether a separate notice of demand was required to be served on a partner of an unregistered firm before recovery of the firm's income-tax liability from him

Analysis: The liability of partners of an unregistered firm is joint and several. Where the firm has already been assessed and a notice of demand has been issued against the firm, the statutory requirement is satisfied for recovery proceedings against a partner. A separate notice to the partner is not necessary when the tax assessed against the firm is sought to be recovered from him.

Conclusion: No separate notice of demand was required against the partner; the recovery proceedings were valid.

Issue (ii): whether a garnishee order could validly be issued against a third party without first treating the assessee as a defaulter

Analysis: A garnishee order operates against the third party holding money due to the assessee and is not dependent on the assessee first becoming a defaulter in the strict sense. The governing provision permits such recovery action once the statutory conditions for garnishee proceedings are met, and the validity of the order does not fail merely because the assessee was not separately proceeded against as a defaulter before issuance of the order.

Conclusion: The garnishee order was validly issued against the third party.

Final Conclusion: The challenge to the recovery steps failed, and the writ petition was rejected because both the absence of a separate notice to the partner and the issuance of the garnishee order were upheld as legally valid.

Ratio Decidendi: In recovery of tax due from an unregistered firm, a separate notice to a partner is unnecessary if notice has been served on the firm, and garnishee proceedings may validly be taken against a third party without prior establishment of default in the assessee in the strict sense.

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