Hindu undivided family status continues for tax purposes with one surviving coparcener if joint family property remains intact.

For income-tax purposes, a Hindu undivided family can remain a taxable unit even where only one male coparcener survives, so long as the family also includes female members such as a widowed mother and unmarried daughters. The Act does not require two male coparceners for assessability. Property that belonged to the joint family does not lose its family character merely because it is represented by a sole surviving coparcener; the relevant factor is the continuing undivided family interest in that property. On that basis, the income from the property remained assessable in the hands of the Hindu undivided family rather than as the individual income of the surviving coparcener.

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Issues: (i) Whether a Hindu undivided family, for income-tax purposes, can exist where the family is represented by a sole surviving male coparcener along with widowed mother and unmarried daughters. (ii) Whether income arising from property that originally belonged to a Hindu undivided family remains assessable in the hands of the Hindu undivided family after the death of the senior coparcener.

Issue (i): Whether a Hindu undivided family, for income-tax purposes, can exist where the family is represented by a sole surviving male coparcener along with widowed mother and unmarried daughters.

Analysis: The expression used in the charging provision is Hindu undivided family, not Hindu coparcenary. A Hindu joint family may consist of a single male member together with female members, and the Act does not require at least two male members as a condition of assessability. Neither the exemption schedule, the prescribed return form, nor the machinery provision relating to partition introduces such a requirement.

Conclusion: Yes. Such a family can constitute a Hindu undivided family for income-tax purposes, and the contention that the assessee could be assessed only as an individual fails.

Issue (ii): Whether income arising from property that originally belonged to a Hindu undivided family remains assessable in the hands of the Hindu undivided family after the death of the senior coparcener.

Analysis: Property of a joint Hindu family does not cease to be joint family property merely because it is represented for the time being by a single coparcener. The governing principle is that the character of the property depends on the rights of the undivided family members, including female members with rights of maintenance and the possibility of future adoption, and not on the mere label of ownership in the hands of the surviving coparcener. On the facts, the property continued to belong to the undivided family.

Conclusion: The income was rightly assessed as income of the Hindu undivided family and not as the individual income of the surviving coparcener.

Final Conclusion: The legal status of the family and the character of the property remained unchanged on the death of the senior coparcener, so the assessment in the hands of the Hindu undivided family was sustained.

Ratio Decidendi: For income-tax purposes, a Hindu undivided family may subsist as a taxable unit even with a single surviving coparcener if the joint family property continues to retain its character as family property under Hindu law.

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