Assessment of a defunct Hindu undivided family under wealth-tax fails absent a specific charging or machinery provision.

An assessment under the Wealth-tax Act could not be made on a Hindu undivided family after it had ceased to exist. The statutory provisions for recovery from a deceased person's legal representatives did not apply to a defunct Hindu undivided family, and the partition provisions did not cover a situation where only one member remained and the family had disappeared. In the absence of any specific charging or machinery provision authorising assessment of a non-existent entity as if it continued, the assessment machinery could not be invoked. The assessee therefore succeeded.

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Issues: Whether an assessment under the Wealth-tax Act, 1957 could validly be made on a Hindu undivided family which had ceased to exist before the assessment was completed.

Analysis: The statutory provisions for recovery from a deceased person's legal representatives did not govern the making of an assessment on a Hindu undivided family that had disappeared. The provisions dealing with partition of a Hindu undivided family also did not cover a case where the family ceased to exist because only one member remained. In such circumstances, and in the absence of any provision enabling assessment of a defunct Hindu undivided family as if it continued to exist, the assessment machinery could not be applied to the non-existent entity.

Conclusion: No assessment could be made on the Hindu undivided family after it had ceased to exist, and the assessee succeeded.

Ratio Decidendi: In the absence of a specific charging or machinery provision, a defunct Hindu undivided family cannot be assessed to wealth-tax after it has ceased to exist.

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