Document Fragment View

Matching Fragments

10. Again, there is no valid reason for making a distinction between an individual assessee and a Hindu undivided family assessee so as to include in the case of an individual assessee the expenditure incurred by the dependant no matter whether from or out of any income or property given to him by the assessee or from or out of his own income and to include only the expenditure by the dependant out of the 'transferred' property or income in the computation of expenditure of a Hindu undivided family assessee. The object with which the Act was enacted was clearly to curb expenditure and check inflation. This being the object, such a classification cannot be supported by saying that expenditure incurred by any dependant of the individual assessee promotes inflation whereas any expenditure incurred by any dependant of the Hindu undivided family does not. It is thus clear that the construction put by the Tribunal on Section 4(ii) is not in consonance with Article 14 of the Constitution. It must, therefore, be avoided, when it is plainly avoidable on the language of Section 4(ii) reinforced by the construction put by us on the definition of "dependant" given in Section 2(g) of the Act and on the entire scheme of taxability of expenditure. In our judgment, under Section 4(ii) even in the case of dependants of an individual assessee, the expenditure incurred by them can be assessed in the hands of the individual assessee only if the expenditure is incurred from or out of any income or property transferred directly or indirectly to the dependants by the assessee.