Deeming provision under HUF partition rules cannot revive a family already divided and separately assessed for tax purposes.

Section 29 of the Kerala Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1950, as amended, operated only as a machinery provision and applied only when the statutory preconditions in sub-section (1) were met. Because the family had been partitioned long before the notices, had repeatedly been found divided, and its members had already been assessed as individuals, it could not be treated as a Hindu undivided family hitherto assessed as undivided or assessed for the first time as such. The deeming fiction in sub-section (3) could not revive a family that had ceased to exist for assessment purposes, so reassessment of the respondent as karta was unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether section 29 of the Kerala Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1950, as amended in 1964, permitted the department to treat a previously partitioned family as a Hindu undivided family and assess the respondent as karta for past assessment years, despite earlier treatment of the family as divided and assessments on the members as individuals.

Analysis: Section 29 was held to be only a machinery provision, comparable to section 25A of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922. Its operation depends upon the existence of the statutory conditions in sub-section (1), namely that the family was hitherto assessed as undivided or was being assessed for the first time as a Hindu undivided family. The record showed a registered partition long before the impugned notices, repeated judicial findings that the family was divided, and completed assessments of the members as individuals. In those circumstances, the family could not be said to be hitherto assessed as a Hindu undivided family, nor could it be treated as being assessed for the first time as such. The deeming fiction in sub-section (3) could not be used to create a family that had already ceased to exist for assessment purposes.

Conclusion: The amended section 29 did not authorize reassessment of the respondent as karta of a non-existent Hindu undivided family, and the impugned notices and assessments were unsustainable.

Ratio Decidendi: A deeming provision in a tax statute, especially a machinery provision dealing with partition of a Hindu undivided family, operates only when the statutory preconditions expressly laid down for its application are satisfied; it cannot be used to resurrect a family already found to be divided and separately assessed.

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