Om Prakash, J. - (1.) At the instance of the Revenue, the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal, Allahabad, has referred the following question for our opinion: "Whether the Tribunal was right in holding that even though there had been only a change in the constitution of the firm on the death of Sri Basant Behari, two separate assessments will have to be made--one for the period from April 1, 1972, to November 5, 1972, and the other for the period November 6, 1972, to March 31, 1973 ?"
(2.) The facts as stated in the statement of the case are that one of the partners of the assessee-firm, namely, Basant Behari, died on November 5, 1972. The dispute relates to the assessment year 1973-74, the accounting year for which was the financial year 1972-73. As the death occurred during the accounting year, the assessment year stood broken up into two parts--one from April 1, 1972, to November 5, 1972, and the other from November 6, 1972, to March 31, 1973. The assessee-firm, however, filed a single return for the entire assessment year. The Income-tax Officer, therefore, made only one assessment in regard to the entire income shown in the return.
(3.) The assessee-firm appealed before the Appellate Assistant Commissioner and contended that two assessments should have been made for the two periods, but the appeal failed.;