Income Tax Revisionary order passed in the name of a deceased person is null & Void: ITAT

The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) has held that Income Tax Notice, Revisionary order passed in the name of a deceased person is null & Void.

The bench of Amit Shukla, Judicial Member, and Pradip Kumar Kedia, Accountant Member said that the entire proceedings beginning from the issue of show cause notice and culminating in revisional order under Section 263 of the Act is a nonest exercise and cannot be given effect in law regardless of the fact whether the revenue was privy to death or otherwise.

The ITAT Bench also made a remark that “We are constraint to observe that such a casual approach of a very senior functionary of the Department does not augur well in the eyes of the public and cannot be countenanced on the touchstone of sacrosanct principle of natural justice explicit in 263 itself.”

In this instance, Sheila Devi (the Appellant) was the legal heir and wife of the deceased assessee (Vas Dev)  who filed an appeal against the revisional order of the Principal Commissioner of Income Tax, Faridabad passed under Section 263 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 whereby the assessment order passed by the Assessing Officer dated  15.11.2018  under Section 143(3) read with Section 147 of the Act was sought to be set aside for reframing the assessment in terms of supervisory jurisdiction.

The Appellant was represented by Ms. Swati Talwar, Adv. who contended that the assessee, namely, Vas Dev expired on 04.12.2020 whereas the show cause dated 20.03.2021 has been issued and addressed to the deceased-assessee, namely,  Vas Dev instead of the legal heir. It was thus contended that the show cause notice issued in the name of a deceased person is nonest and thus liable to be quashed at the threshold.