Lalita Agarwal (Legal Heir of Late Shri Subhash Chandra Agarwal) Vs ACIT (ITAT Mumbai)
In these five appeals, legal heir of Late Subhash Chandra Agarwal challenged reopening notices u/s 148 & consequential assessments framed entirely in the name & PAN of the deceased, despite the department being duly informed of the death on 23.01.2015 along with the death certificate.
Tribunal noted that for all years, notices u/s 148 as well as assessment orders u/s 147/144 were issued exclusively in the name of the deceased & on his PAN, even though parallel proceedings were independently carried out in the PAN of the legal heir, where no income of the deceased was assessed. Tribunal held that such notices & assessments issued to a dead person are void ab initio, relying on the Delhi High Court judgment in Savita Kapila (426 ITR 502) & also noting that identical appeals of the same assessee for AYs 2008-09 to 2010-11 had already been allowed. Since jurisdiction itself was invalid, the reassessment orders were quashed for all years & the appeals were allowed.
FULL TEXT OF THE ORDER OF ITAT MUMBAI
These appeals have been filed by the Assessee against the respective orders passed by the NFAC, Delhi for AYrs 2011-12 to 2014- The common solitary issue raised in all the 05 appeals is as regards to challenging the reopening notice u/s. 148 alongwith the assessment order issued in the name and importantly in the PAN No. of the Deceased.
