TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (8) TMI 56
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.... belonging to her late father. The respondents initiated proceedings under the provisions of Income Tax Act, 1961 for evasion of tax against late father of the petitioner by issuing show cause notices and the impugned orders have been passed. The notices and the impugned orders have been challenged on the ground that proceedings cannot be initiated under the provisions of Income Tax Act, 1961 posthumously against a dead person. 2. Reliance is also placed on the judgment of a Division Bench of this Court in W.A.No. 1407/2024 dated 22.01.2025. 3. Paragraph Nos. 3 of the said judgment reads as under: "3. Having heard the learned counsel appearing for the parties and having perused the Appeal papers, we decline indulgence in the matter bro....
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....l representative and may be continued against the legal representative from the stage at which it stood on the date of the death of the deceased; (b) any proceeding which could have been taken against the deceased if he had survived, may be taken against the legal representative; and (c) all the provisions of this Act shall apply accordingly. (3) The legal representative of the deceased shall, for the purposes of this Act, be deemed to be an assessee. (4) Every legal representative shall be personally liable for any tax payable by him in his capacity as legal representative if, while his liability for tax remains undischarged, he creates a charge on or disposes of or parts with any assets of the estate of the deceased, which are....
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....t the case. If the Parliament intended that, a proceeding of the kind can be initiated against the Assessee posthumously and orders passed therein should bind his Legal Representatives, the language of the provision would have been much different. There is a strong presumption that the Parliament fully understands what public policy needs to be enacted and the text of language to be employed for such enactment. English is a foreign language, is a poor ground of rebuttal, especially when a plethora of legislations are in that language, although along with Hindi. 3.3 The second contention of the learned Panel Counsel that liberty ought to have been reserved to the Revenue for initiating fresh proceedings against the Legal Representatives o....
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....at best it is a defect liable to be corrected. This principle would not apply when the assessee is already dead at the time of issuance of the notice. If, on the date of death of the deceased, a return of income had not been made under s 139(1) and a notice under ss 142(1)(i) or 148, as the case may be, had not been served on him, the AO should first issue the notice under s 142(1)(i) or 148 to the legal representative of the deceased and then proceed to assess the income of the deceased in the hands of the representative as if the representative were the assessee. In other words, notice cannot be issued in the name of a dead person and such notice would be null and void, and proceedings cannot thereafter be continued against the legal repr....
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....law. 5. Under the circumstances, the proceedings initiated against the dead person in the instant case is liable to be set aside. 6. Hence, the following: ORDER i. Writ petition is allowed. ii. The notice dated 19.03.2022 bearing DIN ITBA/AST/F/148A(SCN)/ 2021-22/ 1041030448(1) (Annexure-B1 to the writ petition) issued by the respondent No. 1; Order dated 06.04.2022 bearing DIN ITBA/AST/F/148A/2022-23/ 1042581333 (1) (Annexure-B2 to the writ petition) issued by the respondent No. 1; Notice dated 07.04.2022 bearing DIN ITBA/AST/S/ 148_1/ 2022-23/1042600609(1) (Annexure-B3 to the writ petition) issued by Respondent No. 1; Assessment order dated 05.02.2024 bearing DIN ITBA/AST/ S/147/2023-24/1060521587(1) (Annexure-D1 to the writ petition....