Director remuneration and Hindu family income depend on services rendered, with the tribunal required to find the factual basis.

Salary or remuneration paid to a director is not automatically treated as Hindu joint family income merely because the qualifying shares were acquired from joint family funds and the articles allowed extra remuneration; the decisive enquiry is whether the payment arose from services rendered by the assessee and whether those services were referable to personal qualifications or were of a general nature. The question is mixed one of fact and law, not a pure question of law. The Tribunal was therefore directed to examine the existing material, determine whether any service was rendered to the company, and, if so, identify the nature and extent of that service before submitting a supplementary statement of the case.

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Issues: Whether the remuneration received by the assessee was to be treated as the income of the Hindu joint family or as his individual income, and whether the Tribunal should be called upon to furnish a supplementary statement of the case on the factual basis necessary to answer that question.

Analysis: The question whether salary or remuneration paid to a director, where the qualifying shares were acquired from joint family funds and the articles provided for extra remuneration, is not a pure question of law but a mixed question of fact and law. The decisive enquiry is the nature and extent of the services rendered by the assessee and whether those services were attributable to his personal qualifications or were of a general nature.

Outcome: The Tribunal was directed to record a finding on the existing material as to whether the assessee rendered any service to the company and, if so, the nature and extent of that service, and to submit a supplementary statement of the case.

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