Reassessment against a deceased assessee's estate is valid when notice is served on the legal representative in that capacity.

After the death of an assessee, reassessment can validly be pursued against the legal representative for tax payable out of the estate under section 24B read with section 34 of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922. The legal representative must comply with the notice and is assessable as if he were the assessee where death occurs before service. A notice served on the administrator in that capacity is not invalid merely because the income had accrued during the deceased's lifetime, and no special form of reassessment notice was required on these facts. The Tribunal's cancellation of the reassessment was therefore incorrect.

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Issues: Whether notice issued under section 34 of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, to the administrator of the deceased assessee's estate was valid, and whether the reassessment proceedings were rightly cancelled on the ground of invalid initiation.

Analysis: Section 24B of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, makes the executor, administrator or other legal representative liable to pay tax out of the estate of the deceased and provides that, where the assessee dies before notice under section 34, the legal representative must comply with the notice and is to be assessed as if he were the assessee. The liability of the estate extends to tax accruing both before and after death, and the Act does not require any special form of reassessment notice in such a case. On the facts, the notice was served on the administrator after the death of the assessee, the estate was the subject of the proceedings, and there was no defect in the form of notice.

Conclusion: The notice under section 34 was valid and the reassessment proceedings were lawfully initiated; the Tribunal was wrong in cancelling the assessments. The answer was therefore in favour of the revenue.

Ratio Decidendi: After the death of an assessee, reassessment may validly proceed against the legal representative in respect of the deceased's estate under section 24B read with section 34 of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, and a notice served on the administrator in that capacity is not invalid merely because the income had accrued during the deceased's lifetime.

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