Reassessment and legal representative liability are limited by statutory conditions; earlier assessments do not bar reopening, but prior years cannot be pursued after death.

Reassessment under section 34 is permissible where the statutory conditions are met, including a reasonable belief that income escaped assessment due to failure to disclose fully and truly all material facts; an earlier assessment does not by itself bar reopening if those conditions exist. However, the liability of legal representatives under section 24B is confined to income of the previous year in which the assessee died and does not extend to reassessment for assessment years long before death. Accordingly, trustees or legal representatives cannot be compelled to participate in reassessment proceedings for such earlier years.

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Issues: (i) Whether notices for reassessment under section 34 could be sustained on the footing that income had escaped assessment notwithstanding earlier assessment orders; (ii) Whether trustees or legal representatives could be compelled to participate in reassessment proceedings in respect of assessment years long prior to the deceased assessee's death.

Issue (i): Whether notices for reassessment under section 34 could be sustained on the footing that income had escaped assessment notwithstanding earlier assessment orders.

Analysis: The jurisdiction under section 34 depended on the statutory pre-conditions of a reasonable belief that income had escaped assessment because of failure to file a return or failure to disclose fully and truly all material facts. An earlier assessment did not, by itself, bar reopening. Where material facts had not been fully disclosed, the fact that the Income-tax Officer had made an assessment on the available material, including an estimate, did not prevent later reassessment if the statutory conditions were otherwise satisfied. The earlier assessment in such circumstances did not exhaust the power under section 34.

Conclusion: The challenge to the notices on the ground that the earlier assessments barred reassessment failed.

Issue (ii): Whether trustees or legal representatives could be compelled to participate in reassessment proceedings in respect of assessment years long prior to the deceased assessee's death.

Analysis: The liability of legal representatives under section 24B extended only to income of the previous year in which the assessee died. That provision did not authorise tax liability, or participation in reassessment proceedings, for assessment years long anterior to the year of death. Since the notices related to assessment years 1947-48 to 1949-50, the trustees could not be required to answer or act in proceedings taken against the deceased assessee under section 34 after his death.

Conclusion: The notices and directions requiring the trustees to participate in the reassessment proceedings were unsustainable.

Final Conclusion: The petition succeeded because, although reopening under section 34 was not barred merely by the making of an earlier assessment, the trustees could not be proceeded against for reassessment of years prior to the deceased assessee's death.

Ratio Decidendi: Reassessment under section 34 is governed strictly by the statutory conditions of escapement arising from failure to disclose fully and truly all material facts, but the liability of legal representatives under section 24B is confined to the previous year of death and does not extend to earlier assessment years.

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