Property income post-partition assessed individually, not as HUF. Judgment clarifies total vs. partial partition rights.

The Special Bench determined that the income from property received by individuals after partition should be assessed as their separate income, not as Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) income. The assessees' status was considered individual based on residing with separated wives and the nature of property received post-partition. The judgment emphasized the distinction between total and partial partition and analyzed the rights of individuals with interests in the income. As a result, the appeals were allowed, establishing the individual status of the assessees for income assessment purposes.

---

---

Issues: Whether the income from property received by the assessees and their respective wives on partition of the family was assessable in the status of a Hindu undivided family or as the individual income of the assessees.

Analysis: The property in question was received on partition after the wives also took shares to which they were entitled under Hindu law. A Hindu undivided family in tax law denotes a joint Hindu family, and the status of the recipient must be determined with reference to the ownership and enjoyment of the particular property. Where the wife has received a separate share and the husband thereafter holds the property as his separate share, the property does not retain the character of joint family property merely because the spouses continue to live together. The concept of reunion was not attracted on the facts, and there was no basis to treat the partitioned shares as joint family property.

Conclusion: The property was assessable as the individual income of the assessees and not as income of a Hindu undivided family.

Ratio Decidendi: Property received by a coparcener on partition becomes individual property where the other family members who could have an interest have also separated and no reunion or joint ownership of that property is shown.

---