Reassessment against a deceased assessee requires notice to the legal representative; notice to a manager or attorney is invalid.

Reassessment of a deceased assessee's income must be initiated and continued only against the legal representative of the estate under section 159. A notice issued under sections 147 and 148 to a manager or attorney who was neither shown to be the legal representative nor authorised by all legal heirs does not confer jurisdiction. The defect goes to the root of the proceedings and is not a mere procedural irregularity. On that basis, the reassessment notices and the assessments founded on them were held invalid and quashed.

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Issues: Whether reassessment proceedings and the resulting assessments were valid when notice under section 148 was issued to a deceased assessee's manager and attorney instead of to a lawful legal representative.

Analysis: The assessee had died before the reassessment notices were issued. The statutory scheme of section 159 makes clear that assessment or reassessment of the income of a deceased person can proceed only against the legal representative, who is the person in law representing the estate of the deceased. The person to whom notice was addressed was neither shown to be the legal representative nor shown to have been authorised by all the legal heirs to represent the estate. A notice issued to such a person could not validly confer jurisdiction for reassessment under sections 147 and 148. The error was not a mere irregularity because the foundation of the proceedings itself was defective.

Conclusion: The reassessment notices and the assessments based on them were invalid and were quashed. The issue was decided in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: Reassessment of a deceased person's income must be initiated and continued only against the legal representative of the estate, and a notice issued to a non-representative attorney or manager does not confer jurisdiction under sections 147, 148 and 159 of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

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