Penalty against a deceased assessee is invalid where the return was filed by the legal representative.

A penalty under the Wealth-tax Act is legally unsustainable if imposed in the name of a deceased assessee. The assessment record showed that the assessee had died before the penalty order was made, and the return for the relevant year had been filed by the legal representative. Because the penalty was nevertheless levied against a person who was no longer in existence, the order could not be sustained in law. The referred question was answered in favour of the assessee, confirming that such a penalty is invalid when not directed against the legal representative.

---

---

Issues: Whether a penalty levied under the Wealth-tax Act on a deceased assessee, instead of on the legal representative who filed the return, was valid in law.

Analysis: The assessment record showed that the assessee had died before the penalty order was made, and the return for the relevant year had been filed by the legal representative. The penalty, however, was imposed in the name of the deceased person and not against the legal representative. A penalty order cannot be sustained when it is passed against a person who is no longer in existence.

Conclusion: The penalty was bad in law because it was levied on a dead person, and the answer to the referred question was in the affirmative in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: A penalty order imposed under fiscal law against a deceased person is legally unsustainable and invalid.

---