TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (11) TMI 1886
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....68/- and the assessee sold an immovable property on 04.06.2016 for a consideration of Rs. 1 crore, but the assessee has not offered capital gains thereon. Therefore, the Assessing Officer issued a notice u/s. 142(1) through ITBA portal on 29.12.2017 to file the Return of Income for A.Y. 2017-18, which was duly served upon the assessee. The assessee neither responded to the notice nor filed his return of income; therefore, further notices u/s. 142(1) of the Act dated 11.06.2019 and 11.09.2019 were issued with a request to furnish necessary details/documents. Again, there was no response from the assessee, therefore a final show-cause notice dated 19.09.2019 was issued to furnish necessary details/ documents for the purpose of proceedings with the assessment. In response, assessee's wife furnished a written submission stating that her husband expired on 27.08.2019, enclosing therewith the death certificate of the assessee and also stated that she did not aware about any financial transactions made by her deceased husband/assessee, hence, unable to file the required details. The Assessing Officer considered the above submission of the legal-heir of the assessee and proceeded with ....
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....ration herself as a legal heir for assessment. (b) The Ld. CIT(A) has erred in law and on facts in not deciding the appeal on merits of the case. (c) The Ld. CIT(A) ought to set aside the assessment order to the file of the AO to pass the assessment order after taking the legal heir on record. (d) The appellant craves leave to add, alter and / or to amend all or any the ground before the final hearing of the appeal." 5. The Ld. Sr. DR Shri Abhijit, appearing for the Revenue, submitted that the assessee is an individual who was regularly filing his returns upto AY 2016-17. However, for the present Assessment Year A.Y. 2017-18 has not filed his return of income u/s 139(1) of the Act, whereas the assessee made cash deposit of Rs. 1.58 crores in his bank accounts during demonetization period. Further, the assessee sold an immovable property on 04.06.2016 for a consideration of Rs. 1 crore but not offered Long Term Capital Gain. Since the assessee has not filed the regular return of income for the year under consideration, the Assessing Officer issued a notice u/s 142(1) of the Act through ITBA portal on 29.12.2017 which was duly served upon but the assesse....
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....rs of the deceased assessee viz. his mother Smt. Kalavatiben Shrivastav and daughter aged 19 years, Ms. Pushti Haresh Shrivastav deposing "no objection" to Ms. Kajal Shrivastav wife of the deceased in representing the estate of the deceased assessee as Class-I legal heirs of the deceased. 6.1. Ld. Counsel for the assessee relied upon the Hon'ble Supreme Court decision in the case of PCIT Vs. Maruti Suzuki India Ltd wherein held that assessment passed on dead person is invalid in law and Hon'ble Madras High Court judgment in the case of Alamelu Veerappan Vs. ITO, reported in [2018] 102 CCH 118, wherein it was held that there is no statutory obligation on the part of the legal representative of the deceased assessee to immediately intimate the death of the assessee or take steps to cancel the PAN registration of the deceased. 6.2. Ld. Counsel for the assessee further placed reliance on the judgement of Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of CIT Vs. Amarchand N. Shroff, reported in [1963] 48 ITR 59 (SC), wherein it was held that the proceedings are void, if issued in name of dead person and the legal representative is liable only to the extent of the estate of the dece....
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....it stood. Ongoing assessments don't restart - they continue seamlessly against the heir. (3) Legal representative shall be deemed to be an assessee for purposes of such proceedings. He stands in the shoes of the deceased for tax matters. (4) If the legal representative parts with or disposes of any assets, his liability is limited to the value of assets handled. Prevents evasion by transferring assets. (5) The department can recover tax dues from property under the control of the legal representative. Power of recovery from inherited estate. (6) The liability of the legal representative is limited to the estate inherited and does not extend to personal assets. He is not personally liable beyond what he inherits. 7.2. As per sub-section 2 of Section 159 any proceeding taken against the deceased before his death may be continued against the legal representative from the stage at which it stood. As per sub-section 3, Legal representative shall be deemed to be an assessee for purposes of such proceedings. As per sub-sections 1 and 6 of section 159, where an assessee dies, his legal representative shall be liable to pay any sum that the dece....
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....uent order under section 148A(d) and notice under section 148 of the Act. 9. Further, the reliance placed by the assessee on the decision of this Court in Sangeeta Vig (supra) in misplaced since in that case the initial notice under the erstwhile section 148 of the Act, was issued at a time when the assessee was dead. However, in the present case, as noted above, the assessee was alive at the time of the issuance of initial notice under erstwhile section 148 of the Act." 7.4. The Ld. SR DR also relied upon the decision of the Co-ordinate Bench of this Tribunal in the case of Late Shri Keshavlal Somnath Panchal Vs. ITO in ITA No. 159/Ahd/2020 dated 16.03.2020, wherein it was held as under :- "7. We have considered rival submissions and gone through the record carefully. We find that before service of notice under section 142(1) Shri Keshavlal Somnath Panchal had already expired. His legal heirs did not file return for this assessment year. Therefore, the right course for the AO is to find out L/Rs. and more particularly, L/R who has inherited assets and liabilities of Shri Keshavlal Somnath Panchal because L/R is liable to pay taxes of the deceased only equivale....
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....cuments to be furnished: S. no. Category of Person being represented Who shall Register as Representative Documents Required 1 As court of wards Administrator General/Official Trustee/Receiver/Manager who manages the property ● Copy of PAN card of the person for whom Court of Wards is appointed ● Copy of Court Order appointing Court of wards/ Receiver/Manager/ Administrator General/Official Trustee. 2 Deceased (Legal heir) Legal heir of the deceased person ● Copy of PAN Card of the deceased. ● Copy of Death Certificate. ● Copy of Legal heir proof as per the norms. ● Copy of the order passed in name of the deceased (Mandatory only if the reason for registration is 'Filing of an appeal against an order passed in the name of deceased'). ● Copy of Letter of Indemnity (optional) 3 Lunatic or Idiot Guardian/Manager who is managing the affairs of such person ● Copy of PAN card of the lunatic/Idiot person. ● Certificate issued by Authorised Medical Authority 7.6. Thus, we are fully satisfied that the assumption of jurisdiction by the Assessing Officer to pass t....
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...., by a fiction, deemed as having been taken against the legal representative. It would be necessary, therefore, to determine who the legal representative is and take all further steps in the proceeding against him. The legal representative will also be given full opportunity of being heard before an assessment is made on him in respect of the estate of the deceased. 3. Section 159, which merely prescribes the method for making assessment of tax in a special case, does not bear upon the initial jurisdiction of the taxing authority but deals with matters incidental to it. If the assessing authority, in the exercise of his jurisdiction, omits to take one or more of the various procedural steps therein laid down or in taking any or such steps commits an error or even deviates from the statutory mandate, the assessment would be null and void only if the omission, error or breach, as the case may be, is so fundamental as could not be waived because it affects inherent jurisdiction. If, however, the legal representative (which term includes plurality of persons) is present before the taxing authority in some capacity or voluntarily appears in the proceeding without service of not....