Legal Representative Updation on Death of Assessee on Income Tax Portal is Sufficient Intimation of Death: ITAT Rules Section 147 Proceedings Void Ab Initio [Read Order]

The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), Bangalore Bench, has held that once the death of an assessee and the particulars of the legal representative are duly updated on the Income Tax e-filing portal, such updation constitutes sufficient intimation to the Income Tax Department.

It ruled that reassessment proceedings initiated thereafter in the name of the deceased are void ab initio and without legal sanction.

The appeal was filed by Mrs. Surekha, legal representative of the Late Shri Devaraj, challenging the order dated 4 March 2025 of the Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals), National Faceless Appeal Centre, Delhi [CIT(A)], for the Assessment Year 2015–16. The matter was heard by the Division Bench comprising Shri Waseem Ahmed, Accountant Member, and Shri Soundararajan K., Judicial Member.

According to the case record, based on departmental information relating to the sale of an immovable property valued at ₹80 lakh, the Assessing Officer issued a notice under S.148A(b) of the Income Tax Act, 1961, on 18 March 2022. This was followed by a ex-parte assessment under S.147 read with S.144 and S.144B, determining long-term capital gains of ₹59.53 lakh and initiating separate penalty proceedings under multiple provisions of the Act.

The assessee was represented by Shri B.S. Balachandran, who argued that Shri Devaraj had passed away on 19 May 2019, long before the initiation of proceedings, and that she had updated his taxpayer profile on the Department’s portal with the date of death and her own particulars as legal representative several months prior to the notice being issued. She maintained that in the faceless and technology-driven assessment regime, the e-filing portal serves as the central official record for the Department, and updating it amounts to formal statutory intimation of the death.

All notices and orders issued in the name of the deceased after such updates, without impleading the legal representative, were therefore a jurisdictional nullity. She further contended that the CIT(A) failed to address this preliminary objection and dismissed the appeal ex parte.

T Shri Balusamy N., Joint Commissioner of Income Tax, Departmental Representative, appeared for the Revenue and contended that no separate written intimation of the death was given to the jurisdictional Assessing Officer and also pointed out the existence of two Permanent Account Numbers in the name of the deceased without any cancellation request. On this basis, it supported the orders of the lower authorities.

The Tribunal found on the basis of evidence, including the death certificate and portal screenshots, that the legal representative had updated both profiles of the deceased well before the statutory notice was issued. It observed that in the e-assessment system, the portal is the Department’s operative database, and a separate letter to the Assessing Officer is unnecessary once the portal has been updated.

The Bench stated that even the filing of an appeal in such cases through the online system is only possible if the legal representative’s details are already recorded. The Tribunal held that issuing a notice under Section 148A(b) after such updates and proceeding to complete assessment under Section 147 amounted to a fatal jurisdictional defect.

Relying on decisions of the Karnataka High Court in ITO v. Smt. Preethi V (2025), the Delhi High Court in Savita Kapila v. ACIT (2020) and Lal Chand Verma v. Union of India (2025), and the Bombay High Court in Mary Gene Gracious v. ITO (2025), it concluded that proceedings initiated against a deceased assessee without impleading the legal representative are ab initio void.

Accordingly, the ITAT set aside the assessment order dated 10 March 2023 and the appellate order of the National Faceless Appeal Centre, allowing the appeal in favour of Mrs. Surekha.

Support our journalism by subscribing to Taxscan premium. Follow us on Telegram for quick updates