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2019 (4) TMI 784 - HC - Income TaxReopening of assessment u/s 148 - validity of notice against dead person - father of the petitioner expired on 12.6.2016 and impugned notice was issued on 28.3.2018 - notice in the name of legal representative - Held that:- In the present case, the assessee has at first point of time objected to the issuance of notice u/s 148 and has not participated or filed any return pursuant to notice. Therefore, legal representatives not having waived requirement of notice u/s 148 and not having submitted to the jurisdiction of the AO pursuant to impugned notice, provisions of section 292A also would not be attracted and hence notice u/s 148 has to be treated as invalid. The facts in the present case are identical to the case of Chandreshbhai Jayantibhai Patel [2019 (1) TMI 353 - GUJARAT HIGH COURT] as in the facts of the present case also father of the petitioner expired on 12.6.2016 and impugned notice was issued on 28.3.2018. In facts of the present case, even prior to issuance of notice, department was aware about the death of the petitioner's father since on 13.3.2018 in response to the summons issued u/s 131(1A) the petitioner had intimated to the department about the death of his father. Therefore, it cannot be said that the respondent was not aware about the death of the father of the petitioner and he could have belatedly issued notice under section 159 of the Act upon the legal representatives of late Shri Kanubhai Nagjibhai Rajpara. The contention advanced that since Permanent Account Number of late Shri Kanubhai Nagjibhai Rajpara was active, it can be presumed that tax payer was alive, cannot be sustained in view of the fact that only because Permanent Account Number is active, petitioner or any assessee is not liable to file the return of income and on that basis it cannot be presumed that the assessee is alive, more particularly, when the department is made to know about the death of the assessee prior to issuance of the impugned notice. In view of the aforesaid settled legal proposition that no valid notice can be issued against a dead person, the impugned notice is required to be quashed and set aside. - Decided in favour of assessee.
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