HUF status continues absent recognised partition under income tax law and cannot be displaced by the Kerala abolition statute.

Assessment status depended on whether a partition had been recognised under section 171 of the Income-tax Act, 1961. In the absence of partition by metes and bounds and with no finding of partition under section 171, the Hindu undivided family status could not be displaced. The Kerala Joint Hindu Family System (Abolition) Act, 1975 did not justify assessment in an individual capacity on the facts accepted in earlier years, particularly where the family status had been consistently treated as HUF and no lawful change was shown. The assessee was therefore entitled to be assessed as an HUF, not as an individual.

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Issues: Whether the assessee's income could be assessed in the status of Hindu Undivided Family or whether it had to be assessed in the status of an individual in view of the Kerala Joint Hindu Family System (Abolition) Act, 1975 and section 171 of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

Analysis: The assessment turned on whether there had been a partition recognised under section 171 of the Income-tax Act, 1961. The record showed no partition by metes and bounds and no finding of partition under section 171. The statutory fiction under the Kerala Act did not, on the facts accepted in earlier years and in the absence of a change in the family status, justify a fresh assessment only in the individual capacity. The Tribunal also relied on the consistent treatment of the assessee's status in earlier assessment years and the legal position that the HUF status would continue unless lawfully displaced by a partition finding.

Conclusion: The assessee was entitled to be assessed in the status of HUF and not as an individual.

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