Judgment :- K. A. THANIKKACHALAM J. At the instance of the Department, the Tribunal referred the following question for the opinion of this court for the assessment year 1976-77 under section 27(1) of the Wealth-tax Act, 1957 "Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Appellate Tribunal was right in holding that the assessee's status should be adopted as that of a Hindu undivided family for purposes of his wealth-tax assessment ?" The point for consideration is whether the assessee's status should be adopted as that of a Hindu undivided family for the purposes of his wealth-tax assessment. The Tribunal held that the status of the assessee is that of a Hindu undivided family for the assessment year 1976-77. A similar question came up for consideration before this court in the case of the same assessee in the assessment years 1972-73 to 1974-75, wherein this court held that the status of the assessee is not that of a Hindu undivided family. This decision was in CIT v. L. Balasubramaniam 1985 (153) ITR 696, 1984 (40) CTR 150, 1984 (19) TAXMAN 402 . In view of the abovesaid decision, we answer the question referred to us in the negative and in favour of the Department. No costs.