Representative assessment of a deceased estate fails where persons without statutory liability are joined as assessees.

In assessment of a deceased person's estate, only the executor or other legally competent representative can be joined as an assessee. Section 211 of the Indian Succession Act and the definition of legal representative under the Income-tax Act required the estate to be represented by the executors alone, so adding persons with no statutory liability had no legal basis. The Court held that such joinder was not a mere irregularity or a precautionary step, but a substantive defect that vitiated the assessment. The challenge was therefore accepted against the Revenue and in favour of the assessee.

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Issues: Whether the assessment framed under section 168 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 was invalid for joining persons other than the executors as assessees.

Analysis: The assessment related to income of the estate of a deceased person whose will had appointed executors and whose administration had not been completed. Under section 211 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925, the executor or administrator is the legal representative of the deceased for all purposes, and section 2(29) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 adopts the meaning of legal representative from section 2(11) of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908. Since the executors alone were legally entitled to represent the estate, the inclusion of other persons as legal representatives had no statutory basis. The Court rejected the view that such inclusion was justified as a matter of abundant caution, holding that a person not legally liable to be assessed cannot be made an assessee merely by precaution.

Conclusion: The joinder of persons other than the executors was not a mere irregularity but vitiated the assessment, and the question was answered against the Revenue and in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: In an assessment of a deceased person's estate, only those who are legally competent to represent the estate may be assessed as representative assessees, and the inclusion of a person with no statutory liability is a substantive defect that invalidates the assessment.

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