Devendra Pareek Vs ACIT (Rajasthan High Court)
The Rajasthan High Court considered a writ petition concerning proceedings initiated by the Income Tax Department under Section 148A of the Income Tax Act, 1961 against a person who had already expired.
The Court observed that the issue was no longer res integra and that the legal position was well settled. It noted that proceedings under Section 148A cannot be initiated against a deceased person. In such cases, the Department is required to proceed by taking recourse to Section 159 of the Act, which deals with legal representatives. The Court found that this requirement had not been complied with in the present matter.
The Court referred to an earlier decision of a Coordinate Bench in Legal Heirs of Smt. Sneh Lata Bhandari Vs. Income Tax Officer and Ors. decided on 27.02.2024. In that case, the Court had held that liability proceedings against legal representatives of a deceased assessee could be initiated only after complying with the mandatory provisions of Section 148A(b) of the Act. Since Section 148A(b) had not been complied with against the legal representatives, the notice issued under Section 148A and the consequential order under Section 148A(d) were quashed. However, the Department was granted liberty to reinitiate proceedings against the legal representatives by strictly complying with Sections 148A(b) and 159 of the Act. The Court had also directed that the period between filing and disposal of the writ petition be excluded while computing limitation for initiating such proceedings.
