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Issues: (i) Whether a Hindu female can seek partition of joint family property under section 171 of the Income-tax Act, 1961. (ii) Whether a partition brought about by operation of law under the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 must be recognised for the purposes of section 171, and whether the assessee was entitled to recognition of the partial partition in its entirety.
Issue (i): Whether a Hindu female can seek partition of joint family property under section 171 of the Income-tax Act, 1961.
Analysis: Section 171 permits any member of a Hindu undivided family to apply for recognition of a total or partial partition. The provision departs from the narrower position under Hindu law that partition could be claimed only by a coparcener. The statutory language was treated as broad enough to include a female member where the family property is sought to be partitioned for income-tax purposes.
Conclusion: A Hindu female can seek partition of joint family property under section 171.
Issue (ii): Whether a partition brought about by operation of law under the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 must be recognised for the purposes of section 171, and whether the assessee was entitled to recognition of the partial partition in its entirety.
Analysis: On the death of a coparcener intestate, the succession fiction under the Hindu Succession Act operates to work out the shares as though a partition had preceded death, and that assumption is treated as irrevocable for determining the heirs' shares. The Court further distinguished the requirements of section 171 from those of Hindu law, holding that even a partition already effected by operation of law must still be applied for before the Income-tax Officer for recognition under the Act. Since the family members had in fact partitioned the relevant properties in exclusion of others, the claim for partial partition could not be curtailed.
Conclusion: The partition effected by operation of law was required to be recognised under section 171, and the assessee was entitled to recognition of the partial partition in full.
Final Conclusion: The income-tax authorities' orders were set aside, the assessee's claim to partial partition was accepted, and the Revenue's challenge failed.
Ratio Decidendi: For the purposes of section 171 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, any member of a Hindu undivided family may seek recognition of partition, and a partition that has taken effect by operation of law under the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 must still be recognised if duly claimed before the Income-tax Officer.
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