Sole surviving coparcener rule: ancestral property assessed in individual hands where no other member with subsisting rights remained.

After an earlier partition had severed the larger coparcenary, and the assessee's sons had already separated, the assessee was left as the sole surviving coparcener after his wife's death. On those facts, the remaining ancestral properties were under his absolute power of disposition and were assessable in his individual hands, not as Hindu undivided family wealth. The principle that a single surviving coparcener may still constitute an HUF was held inapplicable because no other family member with subsisting rights remained.

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Issues: Whether the ancestral properties remaining with the assessee after the earlier family partition and the death of his wife were assessable as individual wealth or as Hindu undivided family wealth.

Analysis: The earlier partition in the larger family severed the coparcenary, and the assessee's mother, having taken a share in that partition, could not be treated as a continuing member of the assessee's smaller family. The assessee's two sons had already separated, and after the death of his wife he was left as the sole surviving coparcener. On those facts, the remaining ancestral properties were held to be under his absolute power of disposition, and the principle that a single surviving coparcener may still constitute an HUF was found inapplicable because no other family member with relevant rights remained.

Conclusion: The properties were assessable in the assessee's individual hands and not as HUF wealth; the Revenue's contention succeeded.

Ratio Decidendi: Where, after partition and subsequent severance of other branches, no other coparcener or family member with subsisting rights remains, the sole surviving coparcener is taxable as an individual in respect of the ancestral properties in his hands.

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