Court-appointed receiver not liable for agricultural income-tax penalty absent statutory status as assessee or legal representative.

A court-appointed receiver in a partition suit was not liable for penalty under the Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1950 because he was neither the person by whom agricultural income-tax was payable nor an assessed legal representative of the deceased assessee. The court treated the receiver as only an officer of the court in custody of the property, and held that section 41 could not be used to impose penalty on him in the absence of statutory liability. After the death of the sthanamdar, the properties devolved on the family members and heirs as separate property under the Hindu Succession Act, 1956. The penalty was therefore invalid, and the jurisdictional question did not arise.

---

---

Issues: Whether penalty under the Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1950 could be imposed on a receiver appointed in a partition suit, and whether the Agricultural Income-tax Officer retained jurisdiction to impose such penalty after forwarding the certificate for revenue recovery.

Analysis: The receiver was not the person by whom agricultural income-tax was payable within section 2(d) of the Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1950, and no assessment had been made on him either in his own capacity or as a legal representative of the deceased assessee. On the death of the sthanamdar after the commencement of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, the properties devolved on the members of the family and heirs as separate property under section 7(3) of that Act. The receiver, being only an officer of the court in custody of the property, could not be treated as the legal representative liable for the tax, and section 41 could not be invoked to impose penalty on him.

Conclusion: The penalty on the receiver was invalid, and the first question was answered against the department and in favour of the receiver. In view of this answer, the second question did not arise for consideration.

Final Conclusion: The reference was disposed of by holding that the receiver was not liable to penalty as an assessee or legal representative under the Act.

Ratio Decidendi: A penalty under a taxing statute that is confined to an assessee cannot be imposed on a court-appointed receiver unless the statute clearly treats the receiver as the person liable to pay the tax or as a legal representative.

---