Incomplete notice to all legal heirs required fresh reassessment and de novo adjudication after proper hearing.

Where reassessment notice was issued to only some legal heirs of a deceased assessee, the matter could not be decided without notice to all heirs and a proper hearing. The first appellate authority had dismissed the appeal as time-barred without condoning delay or examining the merits, but the record showed that the reassessment itself suffered from incomplete service on all legal representatives. The proper course was de novo consideration after issuing notice to every legal heir and granting a reasonable opportunity of being heard. The matter was therefore restored to the assessing authority for fresh adjudication.

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Issues: Whether the reassessment and the appellate dismissal deserved interference where notice was stated to have been issued only to some of the legal heirs and the appeal had been rejected as time-barred without examining the merits.

Analysis: The appeal was dismissed by the first appellate authority on limitation without condoning the delay or dealing with the merits. The record showed that the deceased assessee had several legal heirs, whereas the reassessment notice was not issued to all of them. In such circumstances, the matter required consideration on merits and the legal heirs had to be given a proper opportunity before a fresh decision could be taken. The proper course was therefore to restore the matter to the assessing authority for de novo consideration after issuing notice to all legal heirs and granting them a reasonable opportunity of being heard.

Conclusion: The matter was restored to the assessing authority for fresh adjudication after notice to all legal heirs, and the appeal was allowed for statistical purposes.

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