Income Tax proceedings Against Dead Person Invalid: ITAT directs Re-Adjudication as AO was Not Aware of Death of Assessee [Read Order]

The Mumbai bench of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal ( ITAT ) invalidated the Income Tax proceedings against the deceased person.

 The death of assessee has not been communicated to the assessing officer. The Assessing Officer has issued notice under section 148 of the Income Act 1961 in the name of the assessee.

The counsel for assessee,SatishMody contended that the impugned notice issued by the Assessing Officer and the assessment order passed by him are not valid.

The counsel for revenue, V.K. Chaturvedi submitted that the fact of death of the assessee has not been communicated to the assessing officer and nobody has appeared before the Assessing Officer during the course of assessment proceedings and the Assessing Officer was constrained to pass the assessment order to the best of his judgment under section 144 read with section 147 of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

The counsel for the assessee further contended that the legal heir has intimated the fact of death of the assessee in 2013 itself and he had raised a specific ground before the commissioner of Income Tax (CIT (A))  stating that the assessment order has been passed in the name of the deceased person. by way of additional evidence, a copy of death certificate of the assessee and also copies of the letters through which the fact of the death of the assessee was intimated to the assessing officer.

The Coram comprising the account member B.R. Baskaran and the judicial member Pavan Kumar Gadale observed that the section 148 has been issued and also the orders of the tax authorities have been passed in the name of the assessee, who has died in 2013 itself. It is settled proposition of law that proceedings initiated and orders passed in the name of the dead person is not valid

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