Section 4 of the Act provides for the charging of income-tax 011 D the total income of every person subject to the conditions prescribed in that section. "Person" bas been defined in section 2(31) of the Act and includes, inter alia, an individual and a Hindu undivided fan.ily. The inherent fallacy of the case set up on behalf of the assessee-appellan~. in our opinion, is that accordini: to him a single individual can constitute a Hindu undivided family and be assessed as such. "Family" connotes a g'roup of people related by blood or E marriage. According to Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd F.d. the word "Family" means the group consisting of parents and their children·, whether living toget~er 9r not; in wider sense, all those who are nearly connected by blood 0r ·affinity; a person's children regarded collectively; those deseended or claiming descent from a common ancestor; a house, kindred, lineage; a ·race; a people or group of peoples. According to Aristotle (Politics I) , it is the characteristic of F man that he alone has any sense of good and evil, or just and unjust, and the association of living beings who have this sense lll!lke a family and a State. It would follow from the above that the word "Family" always signifies a group. Plurality of persons is an essential attribute of a family. A single person, male or female, does not constitute a family. He or she would remain, what is inherent in the very nature of things, an individual, a lonely wayfarer till per chance he or G she finds a _mate. A family consisting of a single individual is a contradiction in terms. Section 2(31) of the Act treats a Hindu undivided family as aJ,l entity distinct and different from an individual and it would, in our opinion, be wrong not to keep that difference in view.
