2023 (5) TMI 163 - AT - Income Tax

Penalty u/s 271D - penalty order as passed on the deceased person - HELD THAT:-As per section 159(2) of the Act, mere initiation of penalty proceeding correctly is not sufficient, but it ought to have been completed also in accordance with the said provisions.

Any proceedings taken against the deceased before his death shall be deemed to have been taken against the legal representative and may be continued against the legal representative from the stage at which it stood on the date of death of the deceased. Therefore, when the penalty order was passed in the name of the assessee, he had already died. Hence, the penalty order is invalid. Decided in favour of assessee.