The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), Mumbai bench has held that the assessment order passed by the Assessing Officer even after knowing about the death of the assessee is bad in law.
The assessee Dr Keshav L. Jumani had filed his return of income declaring a total income of Rs.1,15,580/- on 08.06.2009 for AY. 2009-10. Later, the assessment of the assessee was re-opened and notice under section 148 of the Income Tax Act was issued on 03.12.2015.
During the proceedings, the assessee’s wife brought to the notice of the AO that the assessee had expired on 03.03.2015 and enclosed a copy of the death certificate evidencing this fact, which has been acknowledged by the AO. However, the Assessing Officer passed the order without taking cognizance of this fact.
Before the ITAT, the legal representative contended that even though the assessee (Dr Keshav Lachmandas Jumani) had passed away on 03.03.2015 and the fact was brought to the notice of the AO, still he went ahead and framed assessment in the name of the deceased.
Shri Aby T. Varkey (Judicial Member) allowed the appeal in the light of the past judicial decisions and held that “Respectfully following the ratio laid by the Hon’ble Jurisdictional High Court wherein the similar legal issue was adjudicated and the impugned action of AO to have framed the assessment in the name of a deceased person was annulled. In the present case, the AO even after knowing about the death of the assessee has framed the assessment in the name of Dr Keshav L. Jumani which is bad in law and so the assessment framed on 17.11.2016 is annulled.”
The assessee was represented by Shri Yogesh Thar, Chaitanya Joshi and Karan Jain and the department was represented by Shri Anil Gupta.
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