PROVINCE OF BIHAR Vs. PROPRIETORS OF RAM NAGAR ESTATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a case stated by the Board of Agricultural Income-tax. Bihar, at the instance of six assessees, the individual proprietors of the Bam Nagar Estate, who formerly formed members of a Hindu undivided family in which partition took place in 1944, since when the members have been individually assessed.

(2.) The question referred to us as a point of law is:

(3.) The assessment in question is in respect of the accounting year 1351 Fasli and for the financial year 1944-45. The assessment orders upon the six assessees, so far as material, may be summaris-ed as follows. The assessees all chose to be assessed on the multiple basis. They made returns for their 'zerat' and 'babasht' lands, copying the area from the cess revaluation papers of the last cess revaluation which took place in 1920, and from this they deducted areas said to have been settled with 'raiyats' subsequent to the cess revaluation. This return, in the opinion of the Income-tax Officer, did not correctly give the present area of lands directly cultivated because it was just possible that the area of 'bakasht' land had increased on account of the acquirement of lands abandoned by 'raiyats' and acquired in execution of rent decrees. Accordingly the assessees were asked to produce papers showing the present area of 'bakasht' and 'zerat' lands under their possession, but they could not produce any such papers, saying that there were none such in their possession. This he regarded as incredible, and he thought that they were deliberately suppressing papers to evade payment of tax. The highest area of 'bakasht' returned by any of the assessees was 1287 acres in the return of one of them. He accordingly took this figure of 1287 acres as the 'bakasht' area for each of them upon the assumption that in the recent partition the 'bakasht' lands had been equally divided. Without saying anything further about the option or giving his reasons for refusing to allow it, he proceeded to assess the income for this area for each assessee at Rs. 34/- per acre, accordingly taking a net assessment for 'bakasht' in come at Rs. 43,758/-.