Joint family property after partition may remain HUF property, keeping partnership share income taxable in the family's hands.

A business shown to have been joint family property before partition retains that character in the hands of the coparcener after partition unless a valid basis exists to treat it as separate property. Here, the partnership business had long been assessed as a Hindu joint family business, and the partition deed itself described it as such; on those facts, the share taken by the coparcener did not become his individual asset. The share income from the post-partition partnership was therefore assessable in the hands of the Hindu undivided family, not as the appellant's personal income.

---

---

Issues: Whether the share income from the partnership business, which originated as a joint family business and was taken over after partition, was assessable in the hands of the Hindu undivided family or in the individual hands of the coparcener.

Analysis: The business had for years been assessed as joint family business, the partition deed itself recited that it was joint family business, and the finding that it continued to be joint family property until partition was a reasonable finding of fact. Where a business or property is acquired or held as joint family property, a partition does not necessarily convert the share taken by a coparcener into his separate property; it may continue to bear the character of joint family property in the hands of the coparcener and his sons. On the facts found, the appellant's share in the partnership formed after partition could not be treated as his individual asset.

Conclusion: The share income was rightly held assessable as income of the Hindu undivided family and not as the individual income of the appellant.

Ratio Decidendi: Property or business shown to have been joint family property before partition continues to retain that character in the hands of the coparcener after partition, unless a valid basis for treating it as separate property is established.

---