The Bangalore bench of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal ( ITAT ) while quashing the reassessment proceedings held that the Income Tax Department could not cure defect in notice issued under section 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 against the dead person by issuing manual notice in the name of legal heir.
The Assessee Lodaya Navalbai Raichand was deceased before the reassessment proceedings . Hence the reopening of assessment was reopened by manually issuing notice against the hairs of deceased assessee. However did not mention the name of the legal heir. Accordingly the department passed an ex parte assessment order.
Aggrieved by the order the assessee filed another appeal before the CIT(A), who dismissed the appeal of the assessee.Accordingly the assessee filed another appeal before the tribunal.
Preethi Patel , the counsel for assessee submitted that the Assessing officer did not have jurisdiction to pass the reassessment order due to absence of a valid notice under Section 148 Income Tax Act.
Accordingly the counsel for the assessee submitted that the department was very much aware of the demise of the assessee and the assessment is therefore bad in law and the same cannot be cured either under Section 159 or section 292 or section 292BB of the Income Tax Act.
Kannan Narayanan,counsel for revenue, supported the order of assessing officers and submitted that before the passing of the assessment order, a manual notice under Section 148 was issued to the legal heir on 11.12.2018.Hence relied on the provisions of section 292BB submitted that the notice under Section 148 to be read as originally issued. Thus the reassessment proceedings are valid
It was observed that the ,, the assessee was deceased when the notice was issued in the name of the deceased assessee. It is inconceivable that the deceased assessee could have participated in the reassessment proceedings, to be estopped from contending that the assessee did not receive it,
Hence reopening notice under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act issued in the name of the deceased assessee on 05.06.2017 is null and void
After reviewing the facts the ITAT bench of Chandra Poojari, (Judicial Member)and Beena Pillai (Accountant Member) quashed the reassessment proceedings held that the Income Tax Department could not cure defect in notice issued under section 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 against the dead person by issuing manual notice in the name of legal heir.
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