Service on all legal representatives is required before assessing a deceased assessee's estate; partial notice is a jurisdictional defect.

Where the estate of a deceased assessee is assessed, all legal representatives who represent that estate must be impleaded and served with notice. Section 159 makes the legal representatives liable for the deceased's tax liabilities, but service on only one representative does not amount to service on the entire body unless that person is shown to represent the others. On the stated facts, non-service of notice under section 143(2) on nine of the ten legal representatives was treated as a jurisdictional defect, not a mere procedural irregularity, and the assessment orders were liable to be annulled.

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Issues: Whether non-service of notice under section 143(2) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 on nine out of ten legal representatives of a deceased assessee invalidated the assessment orders, or merely constituted an irregularity justifying setting aside of the assessments rather than their annulment.

Analysis: Section 159 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 makes the legal representatives liable to be assessed in respect of the deceased's estate, and the estate can be proceeded against only when it is fully represented. Section 2(7) of the Act treats such legal representatives as assessees, while section 2(29) read with section 2(11) of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 shows that all persons representing the estate must be brought on record. A notice served on only one legal representative does not amount to notice to the entire body of legal representatives, and there was no finding that the one person served represented the others. In such a situation, the assessment proceeding was not validly constituted, and the defect went to jurisdiction rather than procedure.

Conclusion: Non-service of notice on all the legal representatives invalidated the assessment orders, and the assessments ought to have been annulled. The answer to the referred question was therefore in the negative and against the department.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a deceased assessee's estate is sought to be assessed, all legal representatives who represent the estate must be impleaded and served notice; failure to do so is a jurisdictional defect that nullifies the assessment, and it is not a mere irregularity.

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