Jajamani income of individual coparcener is personal income and not joint family income.

JUDGMENT :

S.C. Mohapatra, J. - A Hindu undivided family is the assessee in this case under the Income Tax Act, 1961, for the assessment years 1968-69 to 1975-76. In the reference applications u/s 256(2) of the Act for all the aforesaid years, this court called for separate statements on the following question of law arising out of the orders for the opinion of this court :

" Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the jajamani income of the individual coparcener can be included in the taxable income of the Hindu undivided family ? "

2. Since the same question is involved for each of the years, the references were heard together and are disposed of by this common judgment.

3. Priesthood is a hereditary source of earning of the members of the family since the time of ancestors. The male members act as priests for various families known as " purohits " and are remunerated for the same. In the year 1935, there was a partition among the members of the joint family. In the deed of partition dated March 13, 1935, the families of jajamans were partitioned areawise and all the householders of the eastern side of the Raja Street area known as Sankarpur and some houses in Pandara Street were allotted to be the jajamans of the assessee family and the male members of the assessee family were performing the acts of a priest in respect of those households.

4. Before the assessing authorities, the assessee claimed that the receipts from the jajamani are the personal income of the individual members of the family who threw the amounts received by them into the common hotchpot. Whether the income from the amounts thrown into the common hotchpot would be joint family income or not is not in dispute. The nature of the earning at the time of receipt is the subject-matter of dispute.

5. The assessing officer has not given any finding regarding the nature of the earning. The first appellate authority, the Appellate Assistant Commissioner, as well the second appellate authority, the Appellate Tribunal, have given specific findings in this respect. According to them, it is the custom and convention that male members of the priest family only can perform pujas and other religious functions like weddings and sradha, etc., in the houses of the jajamans and this is also traditional. Jajamani or priesthood is a profession and avocation which involves exercise of a specified function confined to a class of persons known as priests. These people are trained from their childhood to perform religious ceremonies, auspicious functions and to invoke the blessings of the divine. Their specialisation lies also in performing highly technical and complicated functions involving recitation of vedic mantras and performances of skilled yagnic rites. The need for them on auspicious ceremonies like weddings is actually felt. Their specialised skill is necessary for the sradha ceremony. They perform pujas before deities. Thus, the priests are trained and skilled in the art of performing these vedic rites.

6. Since the persons acting as priests acquire a right to earn income by carrying on such profession only because of their birth in a particular family, it was held by the Appellate Assistant Commissioner that the income is joint family income. The second appellate authority, the Appellate Tribunal, found that jajamani is a profession which is a hereditary occupation of the assessee family. Thus, the right to receive income from such profession is a family asset from long back which has been acquired by partition since 1935. When this asset has not been divided, the coparceners were carrying on the profession on behalf of the family and were keeping the earnings in the common hotchpot and, therefore, such income is assessable in the hands of the assessee which is the Hindu undivided family.

7. From the finding relating to the nature of the earning from services as a priest, it is clear that the same is for personal service rendered to the particular jajaman,