|
Home
Forgot password New User/ Regiser ⇒ Register to get Live Demo
2018 (12) TMI 697 - DELHI HIGH COURTReopening of assessment - notice issued u/s 148 to the deceased assessee - curable defect u/s 292BB - Held that:- If the original assessee had lived and later participated in the proceedings, then, by reason of Section 292BB, she would have been precluded from saying that no notice was factually served upon her. When the notice was issued in her name-when she was no longer of this world, it is inconceivable that she could have participated in the reassessment proceedings, (nor is that the revenue’s case) to be estopped from contending that she did not receive it. The plain language of Section 292BB, in our opinion precludes its application, contrary to the revenue’s argument. This court is of opinion that the absence of any provision in the Act, to fasten revenue liability upon a deceased individual, in the absence of pending or previously instituted proceeding which is really what the present case is all about, renders fatal the effort of the revenue to impose the tax burden upon a legal representative. After rejection, of the objection, which meant that according to the revenue, such a transaction was indeed recorded in the deceased’s books, the revenue attempted to “correct” the “error” by changing the name of the entity (with whom the suspect transaction occurred). This court is of opinion that such “correction” is neither innocuous nor innocent; it was clearly aimed at improving what was a fatally defective “reasons to believe” and mask the reality, to wit, that the revenue authorities utterly failed to apply their minds to the facts and circumstances of the case. On the last issue, i.e the fatality attached to the completed reassessment in the absence of a notice under Section 143(2), this court notices that the omission renders the assessment (or reassessment as in this case) void a proposition of law enunciated in Asstt. CIT v. Hotel Blue Moon [2010 (2) TMI 1 - SUPREME COURT OF INDIA] The impugned reassessment notice and all consequent proceedings-including the reassessment order-have to be and are, hereby quashed. W.P. allowed.
|
