AI Drafter 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1972 (8) TMI 7
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....o set out the material facts. The first respondent, Ram Prasad, was the karta of a Hindu undivided family which carried on business in the name and style of "Ram Nath Ram Prasad". Assessments were made on the family for income-tax for the assessment years 1944-45 to 1947-48 and for excess profits tax for the corresponding chargeable accounting periods respectively ending on October 28, 1943, October 16, 1944, November 4, 1945, and March 31, 1946. The income-tax assessments for the assessment year 1944-45 and the excess profits tax assessment for the corresponding chargeable accounting period ending on October 28, 1943, were set aside by the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal with the direction that fresh orders of assessment be made in accord....
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....ions allowed the same holding that the appellant was not competent to take proceedings under the provisions of the Act in respect of a Hindu undivided family which had been divided. Aggrieved by that decision, the appellant took up the matter in appeal to the Division Bench of the Allahabad High Court. The Division Bench upheld the decision of the learned single judge. Hence these appeals. Section 2(17) of the Act defines a person as including a Hindu undivided family. Section 4 is the charging section. It reads: " 4. (1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, there shall, in respect of any business to which this Act applies, be charged, levied and paid on the amount by which the profits during any chargeable accounting period exceed ....
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....ve on any person, upon whom a notice has been served under sub-section (1), a notice requiring him on a date to be therein specified to produce, or cause to be produced, such accounts or documents as the Excess Profits Tax Officer may require and may from time to time serve further notices in like manner requiring the production of such further accounts or documents or other evidence as he may require: Provided that the Excess Profits Tax Officer shall not require the production of any accounts relating to a period prior to the 'previous year' as determined under section 2 of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, for the purpose of the income-tax assessment for the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1937. 14. (1) The Excess Profits Tax ....
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....n Income-tax Act, 1922, shall apply with such modifications, if any, as may be prescribed, as if the said provisions were provisions of this Act and referred to excess profits tax instead of to income-tax, and every officer exercising powers under the said provisions in regard to income-tax may exercise the like powers under this Act in regard to excess profits tax in respect of cases assigned to him under sub-section (3) of section 3 as he exercises in relation to income-tax under the said Act: Provided that references in the said provisions to the assessee shall be construed as references to a person to whose business this Act applies." There is no provision in the Act similar to section 25A of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922. Th....
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....oubt the basis of the assessment is not the receipt of the profits but the accrual, whether it accrued to a resident or non-resident and whether the accrual was within or without British India in the same manner as under the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922. As observed by the High Court of Madras in Commissioner of Excess Profits Tax v. Jivaraj Topun and Sons: " The point however is put beyond doubt by section 14, sub-section (1), of the Act which provides for assessment of the tax after the return is submitted in pursuance of a notice issued under section 13 of the Act. It requires that the Excess Profits Tax Officer, after completing the assessment should furnish 'a copy of such order (that is the assessment order) to the person on whom th....
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....ness, profession or vocation carried on by a firm or association of persons has been discontinued, or where an association of persons is dissolved, every person who was at the time of such discontinuance or dissolution a partner of such firm or a member of such association shall, in respect of the income, profits and gains of the firm or association, be jointly and severally liable to assessment under Chapter IV and for the amount of tax payable and all the provisions of Chapter IV shall, so far as may be, apply to any such assessment." This provision applies only to firms and associations of persons. Hindu undivided family is neither a firm nor an association of persons. It is a separate entity by itself. That is made clear by section 3....