Post-partition tax assessment on a Hindu undivided family failed where the statute lacked machinery for continued proceedings.

Proceedings under the Excess Profits Tax Act could not validly continue against a Hindu undivided family after partition because the Act taxed the person carrying on the business and contained no provision enabling post-partition assessment of a Hindu undivided family. The charging and machinery provisions required notice, assessment and payment to be directed to the assessed person, and section 44 of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922 did not apply to Hindu undivided families. The notices were therefore invalid and the assessment proceedings could not be maintained against the divided family.

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Issues: Whether proceedings under the Excess Profits Tax Act could validly be taken against a Hindu undivided family after its partition, and whether liability depended merely on the continuation of the business.

Analysis: The Act defines a person to include a Hindu undivided family and its charging and machinery provisions show that excess profits tax is assessed on the person carrying on the business, though computed on the profits of the business. The notice and assessment provisions contemplate service of notice on a person, furnishing of assessment orders to the person assessed, and liability to pay by the person carrying on the business during the relevant period. The Act contains no provision corresponding to section 25A of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, for assessment after partition of a Hindu undivided family. Section 44 of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, does not assist because it applies to firms and associations of persons, not to Hindu undivided families.

Conclusion: The notices were invalid and proceedings could not be maintained against the divided Hindu undivided family; the conclusion was in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The appeals failed because the statutory scheme treated excess profits tax as an assessment on the person, and in the absence of any provision enabling post-partition assessment of a Hindu undivided family, the impugned notices could not stand.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a taxing statute levies tax on the person and lacks a provision equivalent to the post-partition machinery applicable to Hindu undivided families under the income-tax law, assessment proceedings cannot validly continue against a Hindu undivided family after its partition merely because the business continues.

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