Home Case Index All Cases Income Tax Income Tax + HC Income Tax - 2016 (2) TMI HC This
Forgot password New User/ Regiser ⇒ Register to get Live Demo
2016 (2) TMI 524 - HC - Income TaxReopening of assessment - notice addressed to a dead person - Held that:- ITO took the stand that since the intimation of the death of Shri Inder Pal Singh Walia on 14th March 2015 was not received by her office “therefore the notice was not issued on a dead person”. To say the least this was a strange stand to take since the death certificate of Shri Inder Pal Singh Walia confirming the date of his death as 14th March 2015 is on record. With the Department having not been able to counter this basic fact, the stand taken by it that the notice was not issued to a dead person on 27th March 2015 was plainly untenable. Another stand taken in the letter dated 18th July 2015 is treating the endorsement made by the postal authority ( ‘addressee expired’) as a refusal by the family members of the Assessee to accept the notice. This was again plainly erroneous. The notices were not addressed to the family members. Therefor, there was no occasion for them to refuse such notice. The postal authority had correctly noted that the person to whom the notice was addressed had indeed expired by then. In the present case where the initial notice under Section 147/148 of the Act was issued to a dead person. The Revenue was unable to issue a notice to the LR of the deceased Assessee under Section 147/148 of the Act within the period of limitation. That would be a plain illegality and not a mere irregularity.- Decided in favour of assessee
|