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TMI Blog1966 (3) TMI 4X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... as an income from other sources to which section 12 of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, refers. Mr. N.A. Mandagi, who produced the return, appealed to the Appellate Assistant Commissioner and contended that the assessment was illegal since not all the legal representatives of his deceased father had been brought on record and since there was no compliance with the provisions of section 24B. He challenged the correctness of the view taken by the Income-tax Officer that the income was an income from other sources. The Appellate Assistant Commissioner dismissed the appeal pronouncing against the appellant on all the questions raised before him. But in the further appeal preferred to the Appellate Tribunal, the assessment was set aside. The Tr ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... gal representatives of the deceased and there was no such service, the fact that only one of those legal representatives produced a voluntary return before the Income-tax Officer did not clothe the Income-tax Officer with the power to proceed to make an assessment on the basis of that voluntary return. The real question before us is whether the order of assessment made by the Income-tax Officer without having served the notices required by section 24B(2) on all the legal representatives is without the authority of law as stated by the Appellate Tribunal. Mr. Rajasekhara Murthy, appearing for the Commissioner, and Mr. Venkataramiah, appearing for Mr. N. A. Mandagi, both agree that that is the real question of law which has been referred to ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e with the issue of a notice. The issue or receipt of a notice is not, however, the foundation of the jurisdiction of the Income-tax Officer to make the assessment or of the liability of the assessees to pay the tax. It may be urged that the issue and service of a notice under section 22(1) or (2) may affect the liability under the penal clauses which provide for failure to act as required by the notice. The jurisdiction to assess and the liability to pay the tax, however, are not conditional on the validity of the notice. Suppose a person, even before a notice is published in the papers under section 22(1), or before he receives a notice under section 22(2) of the Income-tax Act, gets a form of return from the income-tax office and submits ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... But the Appellate Tribunal thought that the Income-tax Officer could not dispense with the notice under section 24B(2), since the person who produced the return was only one of the five legal representatives, there being three other sons of Mr. A. A. Mandagi, and his widow, who did not join in the production of the return. It is obvious that the Tribunal was of the view that, before the Income-tax Officer could make an assessment, there was a duty which section 24B(2) imposed upon him, to serve notices on those other legal representatives who did not join in the production of the return. It is manifest from the provisions of section 24B that when a person dies and an assessment has to be made with respect to his income, his estate must be ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ice is served on him, all the legal representatives of the deceased should be impleaded as parties to the reassessment proceedings. This, according to the learned judges, was the clear meaning of section 24B(2) of the Income-tax Act. With this enunciation, we respectfully agree. It is true that Mr. N. A. Mandagi produced a return after the death of his father. But that return was not produced on behalf of the estate which he alone could not represent. It may be that in a proper case there may be the representation of the estate by only one of the legal representatives, and, that if that be so, an assessment in proceedings in which only one of the legal representatives participates may bind the other legal representatives and the estate. B ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... as a condition precedent for the exercise of such jurisdiction. We are not willing to subscribe to any such broad statement of the law, since in a case where all the legal representatives produce a return, even without having been served with a notice required by section 24B(2), the service of such notice would be unnecessary. We are concerned in this case only with the question whether, after the production of the return by one of the legal representatives, it was possible for the Income-tax Officer to proceed to make an assessment without service of notices on the other legal representatives. Our answer to this question is that the Income-tax Officer could not, on the facts of the case before him, make the assessment without service of su ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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