HUF status for partitioned family property where the family continues with members capable of constituting a joint family.

Property received by a coparcener from joint family estate remains assessable as a Hindu undivided family where other family members exist and the family can continue as a HUF. The determining factor is the continued existence of members capable of constituting a joint family, including the assessee's mother and minor sisters. On that principle, the property is not treated as the coparcener's separate individual asset for Wealth-tax purposes, and the assessee's status is correctly assessed as a HUF rather than an individual.

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Issues: Whether the assessee, who had received property from the joint family estate and had other family members including his mother and minor sisters, was assessable as a Hindu undivided family or as an individual under the Wealth-tax Act.

Analysis: The property in question had come to the assessee from joint family property. The existence of other family members was material in determining the nature of the taxable entity. The governing principle was that property received by a coparcener on partition, where the family continues to have members capable of constituting a Hindu undivided family, is assessable in the hands of the Hindu undivided family and not as the separate individual property of the coparcener.

Conclusion: The assessee's status was correctly held to be that of a Hindu undivided family and not an individual.

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