1. This reference under section 256(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, is at the instance of the Revenue to decide the following question of law, namely:

"Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Tribunal was legally right in directing the Income-tax Officer to make two separate assessments, one for the period prior to the change and the other for the period after the change in the constitution of the firm, notwithstanding the fact that it was a change in the constitution of the firm as contemplated under section 187(2) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 ? "

2. The relevant assessment year is 1977-78. The assessee was a partnership firm constituted by a deed of partnership dated January 1, 1976. It consisted of five partners, of whom one died on March 20, 1976, during the accounting period of the relevant assessment year. Thereafter, the firm was reconstituted from the same date by executing another partnership, deed on April 14, 1976. The question for decision before the Income-tax Officer was whether, in these circumstances, it was merely a case of change in the constitution of the firm governed by section 187 of the Act, so that only one assessment had to be