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Showing contexts for: Death of assessee in Dharamraj vs Income Tax Officer on 17 January, 2022Matching Fragments
6. The learned counsel for the respondent submits that the factum of death of the Assessee was never communicated to the respondent by the legal heirs, though the notices were duly served at the given address. He submits that the petitioner, therefore, has an alternate efficacious remedy in form of a statutory appeal and this Court should refuse to entertain the present petition.
31. xxxxx THERE IS NO STATUTORY REQUIREMENT IMPOSING AN OBLIGATION UPON LEGAL HEIRS TO INTIMATE THE DEATH OF THE ASSESSEE.
32. This Court is of the view that in the absence of a statutory provision it is difficult to cast a duty upon the legal representatives to intimate the factum of death of an assessee to the income tax department. After all, there may be cases where the legal representatives are estranged from the deceased assessee or the deceased assessee may have bequeathed his entire wealth to a charity. Consequently, whether PAN record was updated or not or whether the Department was made aware by the legal representatives or not is irrelevant. In Alamelu Veerappan (supra) [2018 (6) TMI 760 - Madras High Court] it has been held "nothing has been placed before this Court by the Revenue to show that there is a statutory obligation on the part of the legal representatives of the deceased assessee to immediately intimate the death of the assessee or take steps to cancel the PAN registration."
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34. Consequently, the legal heirs are under no statutory obligation to intimate the death of the assessee to the Revenue.
SECTION 292B OF THE ACT, 1961 HAS BEEN HELD TO BE INAPPLICABLE, VIS-À-
VIS, NOTICE ISSUED TO A DEAD PERSON IN RAJENDER KUMAR SEHGAL [2018 (12) TMI 697 (DELHI)], CHANDRESHBHAI JAYANTIBHAI PATEL [2019 (1) TMI 353 -
IN RAJINDER KUMAR SEHGAL (SUPRA) A COORDINATE BENCH OF THIS COURT HAS HELD THAT SECTION 292BB OF THE ACT, 1961 IS APPLICABLE TO AN ASSESSEE AND NOT TO A LEGAL REPRESENTATIVE.
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38. This Court is also of the view that Section 292BB of the Act, 1961 is applicable to an assessee and not to a legal representative. Further, in the present case one of the legal heirs of the deceased assessee, i.e. the petitioner, had neither cooperated in the assessment proceedings nor filed return or waived the requirement of Section 148 of the Act, 1961 or submitted to jurisdiction of the Assessing Officer. She had merely uploaded the death certificate of the deceased assessee.