Receiver liability under agricultural income-tax depends on actual receipt or control in the relevant year, not later succession.

Assessment under section 16(3) of the U.P. Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1948, is linked to the person who actually accrued, received, or controlled the agricultural income in the relevant year. A receiver appointed later, who neither managed the estate nor received the 1359 Fasli income, cannot be assessed on that income merely because he subsequently succeeded to the estate. The discussion relies on the scheme of representative assessment and direct assessment on the beneficial owner, and notes that comparable income-tax provisions support the same principle.

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Issues: Whether an assessment under section 16(3) of the U.P. Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1948, in respect of agricultural income of the year 1359 Fasli could be made against a receiver who was not in management or receipt of the income during that year.

Analysis: The Act fastens the charge on the total agricultural income of the person to whom the income accrues or by whom it is received. Its scheme, including the provisions relating to representative assessees and direct assessment on the beneficial owner, shows that assessment is ordinarily linked to the person who actually received or controlled the income in the relevant previous year. The receiver appointed years later did not manage the estate during 1359 Fasli and did not receive that income. The comparable provisions under the income-tax law support the same principle that liability cannot be shifted to a subsequent receiver merely because he succeeded to the estate.

Conclusion: The assessment could not be made against the receiver, and the question was answered in the negative.

Ratio Decidendi: Under a taxing statute of this scheme, a receiver can be assessed only in respect of income received or entitled to be received by him in the relevant year, and liability cannot be imposed on a later receiver for income received by a prior holder of the estate.

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