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TMI Blog1973 (3) TMI 13X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d without notice to any of the legal representatives of the deceased ; and the contention before me is that such an order of assessment is bad under law. It is also contended that the said orders are bad, for the reason that they do not state the names of the legal representatives as the assessee. The facts of the case are not in dispute. Assessments were first made against the deceased, Kurian Ouseph, under section 18(4) of the Act. Those assessments were set aside by the respondent on applications made by the deceased under section 19 of the Act. After that, a pre-assessment notice was issued by the respondent to the deceased on January 8, 1969, in respect of the assessment for the year 1968-69 calling for his objections, if any, and pos ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... notice before the assessment order is passed is admittedly governed by sub-section (3) of section 24 of the Act, with reads : " 24. Tax of deceased person payable by representatives.-(1) .... (3) Where a person dies without having furnished a return which he has been required to furnish under section 17, or having furnished a return which the Agricultural Income-tax Officer has reason to believe to be incorrect or incomplete, such officer may make an assessment of the total agricultural income of such person and determine the agricultural income-tax payable by him on the basis of such assessment, and for this purpose may, by the issue of the appropriate notice which would have had to be served upon the deceased person had he survived, re ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... affect the validity of the assessment orders. The contention that the said orders are bad under law, since notices were not issued to the legal representatives before the orders were passed, has, therefore, to be rejected. I have support for the above view in a Division Bench decision of the Mysore High Court in Abdul Rahman v. Commissioner of Income-tax. The facts of that case were almost similar to the one before me except for one difference, viz., the impugned assessment in the Mysore case was made without notice of the fact that the assessee had died, while in the instant case, the Income-tax Officer had knowledge about the death of the assessee before the impugned orders were passed. But I do not think that this will make any differe ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... lso. Counsel for the petitioner has relied on a Single Bench decision of the Calcutta High Court in Sahasrangshu Kanta Acharya v. Collector of Malda in support of his contention that an order of assessment which does not specify the name of the legal representative is bad under law. The impugned assessments in that case related to the years 1952-53, 1953-54 and 1954-55 ; and they were in respect of the income of a person who died on or about June 5, 1952. Proceedings for the assessments seem to have been initiated long after the death of the person ; and the name of the assessee was stated in the orders of assessment as " successor-in-interest to the late Maharaj Kumar Sitangshu Kanta Acharya Bahadur ". Notices of demand were also issued i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... only on three of them. The assessee is admittedly one of the legal representatives ; and he has been duly served with the copies of the orders of assessments as well as notices of demand. No person who claims to be a legal representative and who was not been served with copies of the orders of assessments and demand notices has come before me to question the validity of the assessments. According to the respondent, there are only three legal representatives for the deceased; and all of them have been duly served with the assessment orders and demand notices. It is not, therefore, open to one of those persons to come forward and say that there are also other legal representatives, and that proceedings are bad in view of the fact that notices ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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