2026 (5) TMI 1198

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....he AO under section 143(3) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (for short, "Act") dated 28/11/2019 for AY 2017- 18. The assessee (through L/heir) has assailed the impugned order passed by the Addl/JCIT(A)-4, Chennai, on the following grounds of appeal before us: "1. That on facts and circumstances of the case and in law, the Order under Section 143 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (Act) as well as the Order under Section 250 of the Act is bad in law and in facts and circumstances of the case; 2. That on the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, the Ld. AO has erred in carrying out an addition under Section 69A of the Act on account of unexplained money amounting to INR 13,19,107 and the NFAC/CIT(A) have erred in enhancing the....

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....33,510/-. Thereafter, the assessee's case was selected for "limited scrutiny" under CASS for verification of cash deposits made during the demonetization period. Notices under sections 143(2) and 142(1) of the Act were issued in the name of the deceased assessee. In response to the said notices, the legal heir of the assessee, viz., Shri IKE Swamy, participated in the proceedings and furnished details as were called for by the AO. 3. During the course of assessment proceedings, the AO noticed cash deposits made during the demonetization period aggregating to Rs. 26,38,214/- in the bank accounts of the assessee maintained with Canara Bank and Andhra Bank. On being questioned, the assessee's legal heir explained that the said deposits ....

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.... body of the assessment order. It was thus contended that merely because the caption of the assessment order continued to mention the name of the deceased assessee, it cannot be said that the assessment suffers from any jurisdictional defect. It was further submitted that the legal heir had actively participated in the proceedings and, therefore, the assessment cannot be held invalid on technical grounds. 8. We have heard the rival submissions and perused the material available on record. The undisputed facts borne out from the record are that the assessee expired on 27.02.2017 and the return of income for the impugned assessment year was filed thereafter by the legal heir. Thus, the department was fully aware of the assessee's death....

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.... ACIT (2020) 426 ITR 502 (Delhi), wherein it has been held that issuance of notice against a dead person and consequent assessment proceedings is null in law, and such a defect is not curable under section 292B of the Act. The Hon'ble High Court categorically held that once the department is informed about the death of the assessee, proceedings can thereafter be initiated only against the legal representatives in terms of section 159 of the Act. 12. We further find that a similar view has been taken by the Hon'ble High Court of Delhi in Vipin Walia v. ITO, WP (C) No. 8273/2015, dated 15/02/206, and by the Hon'ble High Court of Madras in Alamelu Veerappan v. ITO, WP Nos. 30060 & 32631/2017, dated 07/06/2018. The Hon'ble Supreme Court in P....