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Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, DELHI BENCH ‘A’, NEW DELHI
Before: Sh. Amit ShuklaDr. B. R. R. Kumar
Per Dr. B. R. R. Kumar, Accountant Member:
The present appeal has been filed by the assessee against the order of the ld. Pr. CIT, Rohtak dated 21.02.2019.
2. Following grounds have been raised by the assessee:
1. That on the facts and in the circumstances of the case and in law the order passed by the Pr.CIT u/s 263 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (‘the Act’) in the subject case being on a dead person is ab initio illegal and must be quashed.
That without prejudice to the foregoing there being neither any error nor any prejudice borne out of the order passed by the Income Tax Officer, Ward-1, Sonepat, the impugned order passed by the ld. Pr. CIT u/s 263 of the Act is arbitrary, erroneous, unfair and unjust and must be quashed.”
2 Anil Kumar L/H Azad Singh 3. The assessee filed paper book consisting of 273 pages. The ld. DR relied on the order of the ld. PCIT. The relevant facts culled from the records are as under: 20.12.2016 – Completion of Assessment u/s 143(3) 15.09.2017 – Death of the assessee 11.01.2019 – Notice issued u/s 263 12.02.2019 – Reply filed by the assessee 21.01.2019 – Date of order u/s 263 by PCIT
It is an uncontroverted fact that it has been informed to the ld. PCIT vide letter dated 12.02.2019 that the assessee has expired on 15.09.2017 and a copy of the death certificate has been enclosed as per Annexure-A (Page No. 1 of the PB). This clearly proves that the revenue authorities were made aware of the death of the assessee. Then, the natural recourse to the revenue as per law is to issue notice on the legal heir which the revenue fail to do and went ahead with passing of the order u/s 263 on a deceased person. Hence, we can conclude that since the assessee stands deceased at the time of the passing of the order or even on the date of issue of notice, the order of the Ld. PCIT is invalid in the eyes of law. Any notice issued on a deceased person cannot be held to be legally valid. The Hon’ble High Court of Madras in the case of CIT-8 Vs M. Hemanathan in Appeal No. 199/2006 order dated23.03.2016, went step further and held that even when the notice is issued in the name of the deceased which was served upon the legal heir and the said legal heir participate in proceeding then such proceeding would be a nullity being initiated against the dead person. Similarly, the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi in the case of PCIT, Central-1 Vs Kaizen Products Pvt. Ltd. in vide order dated
3 Anil Kumar L/H Azad Singh 25.07.2017 held that notice issued to a non-existing assessee or work clearly void ab inito. The Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of Pr. Commissioner Of Income Tax Vs Maruti Suzuki India Limited vide order dated 25.07.2019 held that issuing of the legal notice on a non-existing entity vitiate the entire proceedings.
Hence, keeping in view the judicial pronouncements referred above and facts of the instant case wherein the notice as well as the order has been issued on a deceased person, we hereby hold that the order passed u/s 263 by the ld. PCIT is void ab inito.
In the result, the appeal of the assessee is allowed. Order Pronounced in the Open Court on 05/05/2020.