Assessee as living person: assessment and demand cannot be applied to a deceased individual or estate under current law.

The text clarifies that the term Assessee denotes a living person by whom income-tax is payable and that assessment under Section 23(4) cannot validly be made on a deceased individual; the statute's language and scheme contemplate assessment and procedural rights for a living assessee and would be strained if applied to the dead. The note further states that demand procedures under Section 29 cannot be used to recover tax from a deceased person's estate or legal representative absent clear legislative machinery authorising recovery from estates.

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Issues: Whether an assessment under Section 23(4) of the Income-tax Act can be validly made on a deceased person and whether a notice of demand under Section 29 of the Income-tax Act can be served on the deceased person's estate or legal representative to recover tax payable by the deceased.

Analysis: The Court examined the statutory scheme, including the definition of "assessee" in Section 2(2), the charging provision (Section 3), the notice and return provisions (Section 22(2) and Section 22(4)), the assessment provisions (Section 23(1)-(4)), the remedial provision enabling review for reasonable cause (Section 27), the demand procedure (Section 29) and related sections (Sections 30, 33, 45, 46, 66(1)). The Court found that the statutory term "assessee" denotes the person by whom income-tax is payable (a living person), that Section 23(4)'s language contemplates assessment on the assessee's total income and that Section 27 confers rights (such as seeking review) on the person assessed. The Court held that to treat a deceased person as an assessee for Section 23(4) purposes would require construing the statute in a strained and inconsistent manner (including assigning different meanings to "assessee" within the same section) and would deny the estate the protections and procedural rights the Act affords a living assessee. The Court emphasised that fiscal statutes are to be construed strictly in favour of the subject and that, if recovery from a deceased person's estate was intended, the legislature must provide clear machinery for doing so.

Conclusion: The assessment made under Section 23(4) on the deceased person is not legally valid and the demand procedure under Section 29 cannot be used to recover the deceased person's tax from his estate or legal representative under the existing statutory scheme.

Ratio Decidendi: The term "assessee" in the Income-tax Act denotes a living person by whom income-tax is payable; taxing statutes must be strictly construed, and absent clear legislative provision authorising assessment of or recovery from a deceased person's estate, assessments under Section 23(4) and demands under Section 29 cannot be validly applied to a deceased person or his estate.

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