Income Tax Notice sent to Dead Person is Invalid: ITAT quashes Re-Assessment [Read Order]

Re assessment order passed by the Assessing Officer (AO) was quashed by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), Delhi on the ground that Income Tax Notice sent to Dead Person is invalid.

The appeal has been filed by the assessee, Neelam Dhingra, (through husband and legal heir Vinod Dhingra) against the order of the Commissioner of Income Tax (CIT) arising from the assessment order passed by the Assessing Officer (AO) under Section 143(3) and Section 147 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 concerning Assessment Year 2006-07. One among the grounds of appeal preferred by the assessee is that the Assessment as framed by the AO is illegal as no notice has been served by him on the legal heirs of the assessee who is deceased and information thereof was given to AO of the facts along with death certificate.

The Counsel for the assessee, R.S. Ahuja submitted that the assessee herein was a non resident and died on 01.10.2010. The information of her death along with death certificate was submitted to the Assessing Officer. However, despite such fact brought to the notice of the Assessing Officer, no notice was issued on the legal heir and that the AO has framed the assessment in the name of legal heir, Vinod Dhingra. This apart, the notice under Section 143(2) was issued in the name of the deceased, i.e., Ms. Neelam Dhingra and a notice under Section 142(1) was similarly issued in the name of the deceased after her death. On these facts, it was contended that notice for reopening of assessment and continuation of reassessment proceedings thereafter was carried out in the name of the deceased person in direct contradiction to the judgments rendered in Rupa Shyam Sunder Dhumatkar vs. ACIT.

The Bench consisting of Kul Bharat, Judicial Member and Pradip Kumar Kedia, Accountant Member held that “notice for reopening of assessment under Section 148 dated 25.03.2014 against dead person is invalid. The Assessing Officer has further accentuated the legal fallacy by continuing to proceed against the dead person by issuing notice under Section 143(2) and Section 142(1) of the Act. The re-assessment order passed pursuant to such invalid notices for the purposes of reopening the assessment and for assumption of jurisdiction for carrying out the assessment is thus apparently bad in law and has no legal sanctity.”

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