1991 (12) TMI 51

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....y as a unit would be entitled to exemption under section 10(26) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, as in the case of the income of an individual Khasi ?" The assessee is a Khasi family. The relevant assessment year is 1980-81. The income of the assessee during the relevant previous year was Rs. 1,02,230, i.e., far in excess of the taxable limit. The assessee did not submit any return of income voluntarily under section 139(1) of the Act. It did not do so even in compliance with a notice under section 139(2) of the Act. The assessee, however, appeared before the Income-tax Officer, through its authorised representative, in response to a notice under section 142(1) of the Act for production of books of account and documents and submitted that th....

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..... Clause (26) thereof, as substituted by the North-Eastern Areas (Reorganisation) (Adaptation of Laws on Union Subjects) Order, 1974, with effect from January 21, 1972, reads as follows: "10. Incomes not included in total income.-In computing the total income of a previous year of any person, any income falling within any of the following clauses shall not be included-. . . (26) in the case of a member of a Scheduled Tribe as defined in clause (25) of article 366 of the Constitution, residing in any area specified in Part I or Part II of the Table appended to paragraph 20 of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution or in the States of Nagaland, Manipur and Tripura or in the Union Territories of Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram or in the ar....

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.... is also not in dispute that had the income in question in the instant case accrued to a single member of the Khasi Tribe, it would have been exempt under section 10(26) of the Act. The only controversy is whether the income in the instant case having accrued not to an individual Khasi but to a Khasi family, whether this exemption will be available. In other words, whether the benefit of exemption available to a member of Khasi Tribe will be available even if the income is earned by him not as an individual but as a group of individuals comprising the members of his family. There is no dispute that all the members of the family are Khasis. We have carefully applied our mind to the controversy. The word "family" is a popular expression. I....