TMI Blog2016 (2) TMI 524X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e 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 me ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... f the Income Tax Act, 1961 in the case of Sh. Inder Pal Singh Walia PAN AAKPW8463F for the AY 2008-09 was issued by this office on 27th March 2015. This notice has been received back in this office with the postal remarks addresses expired. On this basis of information received from the records, the undersigned spoke to you on your mobile No. 9818200740 on 15th June 2015. Kindly find enclosed the copy of notice u/S 148 of the Income Tax Act issued on 27th March 2015 for the AY 2008-09 in the name of Sh. Inder Pal Singh Walia. You are further requested to kindly provide details of legal heirs/successor of the deceased Assessee to complete the assessment proceedings for the AY 2008-09. The required details should be submitted to ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... by then. 8. Proceeding on the above two erroneous stands, the Department compounded its errors by insisting on continuing with the proceedings under Section 147/148 of the Act. It is at that stage that the Petitioner approached this Court. 9. While issuing notice in the petition on 28th August 2015, this Court stayed further proceedings. No counter affidavit has been filed till date. Learned counsel for the Revenue sought some more time for that purpose. With the facts being evident and the question being purely one of law, the Court declines the request. 10. As far as Assessees who have expired, Section 159 of the Act sets out how the Department should go about proceeding against the legal representatives ( LRs ) of such Assessee ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the value of the asset so charged, disposed of or parted with. (5) The provisions of sub-section (2) of section 161, section 162, and section 167, shall, so far as may be and to the extent to which they are not inconsistent with the provisions of this section, apply in relation to a legal representative. (6) The liability of a legal representative under this section shall, subject to the provisions of sub-section (4) and sub-section (5), be limited to the extent to which the estate is capable of meeting the liability. 11. Section 159(2) of the Act makes a specific reference to a reassessment proceeding under Section 147 of the Act. While Section 159(2)(a) of the Act talks of a proceeding already taken against an Assessee be ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... iled returns for the three Assessment Years ( AYs ) for which the deceased Assessee had failed to file the returns. In other words, the proceedings at the instance of the LR of the deceased Assessee were already in progress when the question arose about the notice being issued only to the LR who filed the returns or to all the LRs. The question was whether the failure to issue notice to all the LRs would render the proceedings invalid. It is in those circumstances it was held that the non-issuance of notice to all the LRs would be only an irregularity and not an illegality. 15. The Court fails to understand how the above decision in Commissioner of Income Tax, Shillong v. Jai Prakash Singh (supra) is of any help to the Revenue in the pre ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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