1996 (2) TMI 19

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..... ereinafter referred to as the "Act"), and the following questions of law have been referred by the Tribunal for answer of this court, which read as under : "(1) Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Tribunal was right in law in holding that the assessment order passed by the Income-tax Officer was, ab initio, void for omission to include the legal heirs of the deceased .....

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..... was void ab initio since passed against a dead person and, therefore, it should be quashed. The Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals) held that the assessment was completed on March 24, 1976, when the assessee did not appear before the income-tax Officer and nothing more remained to be done except passing the assessment order. Thus, the Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals) upheld the order of the .....

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..... were concluded and only the assessment order remained to be passed. Therefore, the Tribunal held that the proceedings were incomplete; hence under the provisions of section 159(2) of the Income-tax Act, it was incumbent on the Income-tax Officer to have brought the legal heirs of the deceased assessee on record, but it was not done. Therefore, the Tribunal found that the order passed by the Income .....

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..... ome-tax Officer to have brought the legal representative of the deceased on record and proceeded from the stage where it was left at the time of death of the deceased. According to the findings of the Tribunal, the proceedings had not been completed before the death of the assessee; therefore, the Tribunal has rightly held that the assessment should be completed under section 159(2) of the Act. In .....

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..... is part presumably the Tribunal may have credited this much to the Income-tax Officer that he will initiate the action under section 159(2) of the Act. Be that as it may, if it is now possible under the law, then it is open for the Income-tax Officer to proceed according to law under section 159(2) of the Act. This reference is answered against the Revenue and in favour of the assessee.
Case l .....

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