Assessment in the name of a deceased assessee is void; proceedings must continue against the legal representative.

An assessment framed in the name of a deceased assessee is a nullity when the assessee dies before completion of assessment. Section 159 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 requires the proceedings to continue against the legal representative, and that requirement is not cured merely because the legal heir filed the return in response to the reopening notice. The appellate order also could not validate the fundamental defect. The assessment and appellate order were therefore quashed as invalid, with liberty to proceed against the legal representative in accordance with law.

---

---

Issues: Whether an assessment and appellate order framed in the name of a deceased assessee, despite the return being filed by the legal heir, could be sustained in law.

Analysis: The impugned assessment was made after the assessee's death and was still drawn in the name of the deceased. The record showed that the legal heir had filed the return in response to the reopening notice, yet the assessment was not framed in the name of the legal representative. An order passed against a dead person is a nullity, and section 159 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 requires the proceedings to continue against the legal representative where the assessee has died before completion of assessment. The appellate order also failed to cure this fundamental defect.

Conclusion: The assessment and the appellate order were quashed as invalid for having been passed against a deceased person, while the Assessing Officer was left free to proceed against the legal representative in accordance with law.

Ratio Decidendi: Where an assessee dies before completion of assessment, the proceedings cannot be sustained in the name of the deceased and must continue against the legal representative under section 159 of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

---