Retrospective validation of marriage under Hindu law supported HUF assessment and displaced the revenue's contrary status view.

Retrospective validation of marriages solemnised by tying of thali under section 7A of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, and the corresponding legitimacy of children under sub-section (4), removed the basis for treating the assessee as an unmarried individual. In that legal setting, the assessee could be assessed as a Hindu undivided family for the relevant assessment years, and the reference was answered against the revenue.

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Issues: Whether the assessee was entitled to be assessed in the status of a Hindu undivided family for the assessment years 1959-60 and 1960-61.

Analysis: The reference arose under section 66(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1922. The Tribunal had accepted the assessee's status as a Hindu undivided family, and during the pendency of the reference Madras Act No. 21 of 1967 inserted section 7A into the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. That provision retrospectively validated a union solemnised only by tying of thali without other ceremonies, and sub-section (4) declared children of such a validated marriage to be legitimate. In that legal setting, the basis on which the Income-tax Officer had treated the assessee as an unmarried individual did not survive.

Conclusion: The assessee was entitled to be assessed in the status of a Hindu undivided family, and the question was answered against the revenue.

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