Partition under section 25A cannot reopen final assessments or shift Hindu undivided family tax liability to members' personal income.

Section 25A of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922 creates a special procedure for partition of a Hindu undivided family: if partition is recorded in the statutory manner before assessment, the officer proceeds to assess and apportion tax under section 25A(2). A later partition order cannot reopen or unsettle assessments that have already become final, because the Act provides no machinery for collateral revival of concluded assessments. Where no valid section 25A(1) order and consequential section 25A(2) action exist, tax assessed on the family remains recoverable only from family property, not from the personal salary income of former members.

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Issues: (i) whether an order recording partition under section 25A(1) of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922 made after assessment could reopen or affect an assessment that had already become final; (ii) whether, in the absence of an order under section 25A(1) and consequential action under section 25A(2), arrears of tax assessed on a Hindu undivided family could be recovered from the personal salary income of its former members.

Issue (i): whether an order recording partition under section 25A(1) of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922 made after assessment could reopen or affect an assessment that had already become final.

Analysis: Section 25A creates a special statutory procedure for cases where partition of a Hindu undivided family is claimed at the time of assessment. If the claim is accepted, the officer records the partition and then proceeds under section 25A(2) to assess and apportion the tax. But where the assessment has already been completed and has attained finality, the Act provides no machinery enabling the officer to reopen that assessment merely because a later order under section 25A(1) is passed. The later partition order cannot be used collaterally to unsettle assessments already confirmed in appeal.

Conclusion: The later order under section 25A(1) could not reopen the final assessments.

Issue (ii): whether, in the absence of an order under section 25A(1) and consequential action under section 25A(2), arrears of tax assessed on a Hindu undivided family could be recovered from the personal salary income of its former members.

Analysis: So long as the assessment stands as an assessment of the Hindu undivided family, the tax liability remains chargeable against the family property. Personal liability of members arises only when an order recording partition has been made and the assessment and apportionment contemplated by section 25A(2) follow. Without that statutory step, the proviso creating joint and several liability does not operate. Recovery from the private earnings of the former members was therefore outside the authority conferred by section 46(5).

Conclusion: The tax could not be recovered from the personal salary income of the former members in the absence of a valid section 25A(1) order preceding assessment.

Final Conclusion: The assessments could not be reopened on the basis of the later partition order, and the tax authorities were confined to proceeding against the property of the Hindu undivided family rather than against the personal income of its members.

Ratio Decidendi: Under section 25A of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, personal liability of members of a Hindu undivided family for family tax arises only after a valid partition is recorded in the statutory manner before assessment and the consequential apportionment is made; a later partition order cannot retrospectively create such personal liability or reopen a final assessment.

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