Provisions of section 23(2) make it clear that benefits of relief in respect of self-occupied property is available only to owner who can reside in his own residence, that means, benefit of relief is available to self-occupied property only to an individual assessee and not to an imaginary assessable entity/fictional entity such as a partnership firm. Various High Court decisions denying relief under section 23(2) to partnership firms cannot be invoked to deny relief to a HUF since unlike a firm which is a fictional entity and cannot physically reside and so cannot claim benefit of provision, HUF cannot be held to be a fictional entity.
A Hindu Undivided Family is nothing but a group of individuals related to each other by blood relations, or in a certain manner; a Hindu Undivided Family can be seen being a family of a group of natural persons; there is no dispute that said family can reside in house, which belongs to Hindu Undivided Family; a family cannot consist of artificial persons; under section 13 of General Clauses Act, words in singular shall include plural and vice versa; therefore, word ‘owner’ would include ‘owners’ and words ‘his own’ would include ‘their own’; there is nothing, therefore, in words used in section 23(2), which excludes application of such provision to HUF, which is a group of individuals related to each other
HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD
INCOME TAX REFERENCE No. 174 of 1995
COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX
Versus
HARIPRASAD BHOJNAGARWALA
Date : 02/08/2011
JUDGMENT
