9911796707
TMI Blog1972 (5) TMI 18X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nd that, though the income derived by Kunhi Bava till the date of his death, namely, July 18, 1968, was liable to be assessed at the hands of the legal representatives, they were liable to be assessed only as tenants-in-common for the period subsequent to July 18, 1968. Apparently, the Agricultural Income-tax Officer took the stand that, for the accounting year in which Kunhi Bava died, the income ought to be assessed as if Kunhi Bava was alive for the whole of the year and tax was payable as if the income was derived by him during that year. For this, reliance was placed on the decision in Commissioner of Income-tax v. Amarchand N. Shroff . In spite of the objection by the legal representatives to such a course, the Agricultural Income-tax ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ing 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, require from the executor, administrator or other legal representative of the deceased person any accounts, documents or other evidence which he might under section 17 or section 18 have required from the deceased person." Section 24(1), in particular, provides that in the case of a deceased person, his executor, a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ame judgment their Lordships said thus: " By section 24B the legal representatives have, by fiction of law, become assessees as provided in that section but that fiction cannot be extended beyond the object for which it was enacted. As was observed by this court in Bengal Immunity Co. Ltd. v. State of Bihar legal fictions are only for a definite purpose and they are limited to the purpose for which they are created and should not be extended beyond that legitimate field. In the present case the fiction is limited to the cases provided in the three sub-sections of section 24B and cannot be extended further than the liability for the income received in the previous year." The same rule was reiterated in the subsequent decision of the Suprem ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 2. Dealing with this question, the Supreme Court said thus : " The only provision which relates to the liability of the legal representative is section 159 of the Act. Sub-section (1) thereof provides that where a person dies his legal representative shall be liable to pay any sum which the deceased would have been liable to pay if he had not died in the like manner and to the same extent as the deceased. The corresponding provision in the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, was section 24B. In commissioner of Income-tax v. Amarchand N. Shroff, it was laid down by this court that section 24B did not authorise the levy of tax on receipts by the legal representative of a deceased person in the year of assessment succeeding the year of account being ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e. According to him these decisions must be read as laying down the rule that if the legal representatives derived any income out of the property of the deceased during the previous year in which the death took place they are liable to be assessed on that income in addition to the income of the deceased up to the date of his death under section 24 of the Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1950. We do not think that this is the purport of the decisions of the Supreme Court. The language of section 24 of the Act appears to us to be clear. It indicates that what is permitted to be assessed under section 24 is the income of the deceased person and what is allowed to be recovered is the tax that would have been payable by the deceased. It is for that ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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