TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2006 (5) TMI 270
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....bsp; 1982-83 44,605 1983-84 74,365 1984-85 80,594 1986-87 95,956 1989-90 1,07,850 2. The assessee has taken common grounds of appeal in all the appeals. We, therefore, find it convenient to dispose of all these appeals by a consolidated order. 3. The assessee before us is the legal heir of late Shri Bhagwansingh Shriramsingh, who died on 17-4-1994. There was a search and seizure action under section 132 of the Act on 8-9-1988 at the premises of the deceased, as a result of which the assessment proceeds for all the assessment years under appeal were reopened by issuance of notices under section 147/148 of the Income-t....
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....the matter was quite old and that he was not in a position to effectively defend the case due to the demise of the assessee. He also admitted that legal heirs were not in a position to trace out all the papers and defend their cases effectively. He, however, relied upon the order of the Calcutta Bench 'D' of the Tribunal in Bhuban Mohan Mitter Charitable Trust v. ITO 45 ITD 617 (at 622), in which the Tribunal has made the following observations : ". . . An assessee can be penalized under section 271(1)(c ) either for concealment of income or for furnishing of inaccurate particulars of income. We agree with the learned counsel for the assessee that the said notices are ambivalent and vague and the ITO has not specifically and precisely br....
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....e view that quasi crimes also die along with the deceased and, therefore, it will be highly irrational, harsh and inequitable to penalize or punish the legal representatives in respect of quasi-crimes committed by the deceased. No doubt, clauses (b) and (c) of sub-section (2) of section 159 say that any proceeding which could have been taken against the deceased if he had survived may be taken against the legal representative and all the provisions of this Act shall apply accordingly. In our view the Legislature was aware of the cardinal principle of criminal jurisprudence that a crime dies with the man which can also apply to quasi-criminal proceedings that is to say the penalty proceedings under the Income-tax Act, 1961. We are sure the L....
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....rustees are considered as legal representatives, then all of them ought to have been heard by the ITO before the levy of the impugned penalties. There is ample support to this submission by the judgment of the Gauhati High Court in Jai Prakash Singh's case (supra). It is evident from records that all the trustees were not heard before levy of the impugned penalties. The impugned penalty orders, therefore, suffer from the serious non-compliance of the mandatory provisions of section 274 and section 282 of the Income-tax Act, 1961. 6. In view of the foregoing discussion the penalties levied are hereby cancelled and the ITO is directed to refund the penalty amounts, if any, collected in the meantime from the trustees." 6. The learned Dep....