2026 (5) TMI 1214

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....ngs initiated by the respondent vide notice issued under Section 148 and the order passed under Section 148(A)d of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act of 1961') on 30.07.2022. 2. The premise on which the proceedings have been challenged is twofold. Firstly that the impugned notice has been issued against the assessee, who had since passed away; and secondly, the approval was not granted by the Competent Authority prescribed under Section 151 of the Act of 1961. 3. Inviting the Court's attention towards the backdrop of facts, learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that during the regular assessment proceedings for the Assessment Year (AY) 2016-17, the assessee Mr. Rishi Raman Jain had passed away (on 20.....

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.... Vijender Pal Jain had filed a reply claiming himself to be Legal Representative, the notice was validly served on behalf of deceased-assessee. 7. Learned counsel for the petitioner in rejoinder submitted that if the father of the deceased-assessee, Mr. Vijender Pal Jain has, due to inadvertence, mentioned himself as his Legal Representative, it cannot estop the petitioner to raise the plea that notice was not properly served. 8. Heard learned counsel for the parties. 9. So far as the first issue raised by the petitioner, that the notice having been served upon Mr. Vijender Pal Jain was fundamentally void is concerned, there is hardly any substance. It is noteworthy that during the reassessment proceedings qua the deceased assessee....

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....ssee does not use the expression 'legal heir' at all; it employs the expression 'legal representative'. Section 2(29) of the Act of 1961 provides that 'legal representative' has the meaning assigned to it in clause (11) of Section 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908. The legislature's conscious choice of the expression 'legal representative' rather than 'legal heir' is not without significance; it reflects the intent of legislature to cast a wider net for the purposes of tax proceedings not limited to the hierarchies of succession law. 12. The expression 'Legal Representative' has been defined under Section 2(11) of the CPC as under: "legal representative" means a person who in law represents the estate of a deceased person, ....