Inherited property remains individual income absent HUF ownership or another coparcener's interest, despite marriage

Income from inherited property was held assessable in the assessee's individual status where the property had become his separate property after the widow's relinquishment, and no prior HUF ownership or other coparcener's interest existed during the relevant period. The article states that a Hindu family relationship by itself does not convert property into HUF property for income-tax purposes; absent shared ancestral ownership or another coparcener, the income cannot be treated as HUF income merely because the assessee was married.

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Issues: Whether the income from the property inherited by the assessee was assessable as income of a Hindu undivided family or as the income of an individual during the period between the assessee's marriage and the birth of his son.

Analysis: The widow and son who inherited the property from the deceased did not take it as joint tenants with rights of survivorship; they held it as tenants-in-common. The widow's interest under the Hindu Women's Right to Property Act was later relinquished, leaving the assessee with the property as his separate property. Although the property was ancestral in the assessee's hands, a joint Hindu family does not automatically carry with it joint property or HUF status for income-tax purposes. The earlier Supreme Court decisions on partitioned HUF property were distinguishable. The controlling principle applied was that where there is no past HUF ownership shared with another coparcener and no other coparcener exists during the relevant period, the property cannot be treated as HUF property merely because the assessee is married.

Conclusion: The income from the property was rightly assessable in the assessee's individual status and not as HUF income.

Final Conclusion: The appeal failed because the assessee could not establish HUF status in relation to the property for the relevant assessment years; the individual assessment was upheld.

Ratio Decidendi: An inherited property will not be assessable as HUF income merely because the assessee is married and living with his wife; absent prior HUF ownership or another coparcener with an interest in the property, the income remains assessable in the assessee's individual status.

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