9911796707
TMI Blog1973 (3) TMI 13X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1950, for the years 1966-67, 1967-68 and 1968-69. In all the assessments, the name of the assessee is described as " Legal heirs of Late Shri Kurian Ouseph ". The impugned orders of assessment were passed without notice to any of the legal representatives of the deceased ; and the contention before me is that such an order of assessment is bad under law. It is also contended that the said orders are bad, for the reason that they do not state the names of the legal representatives as the assessee. The facts of the case are not in dispute. Assessments were first made against the deceased, Kurian Ouseph, under section 18(4) of the Act. Those assessments were set aside by the respondent on applications made b ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... as filed this writ petition to quash the said assessments on the grounds already stated. The question whether the legal representative of the deceased assessee, against whom proceedings for assessment were pending, is entitled to get any notice before the assessment order is passed is admittedly governed by sub-section (3) of section 24 of the Act, with reads : " 24. Tax of deceased person payable by representatives.-(1) .... (3) Where a person dies without having furnished a return which he has been required to furnish under section 17, or having furnished a return which the Agricultural Income-tax Officer has reason to believe to be incorrect or incomplete, such officer may make an assessment of the total agricultural income of such ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e, the proceedings for assessment had come to a close on June 20, 1969, and thereafter there was no question of issuing any notice to any person before the assessment orders were passed. The fact that the assessee died in the meanwhile cannot affect the validity of the assessment orders. The contention that the said orders are bad under law, since notices were not issued to the legal representatives before the orders were passed, has, therefore, to be rejected. I have support for the above view in a Division Bench decision of the Mysore High Court in Abdul Rahman v. Commissioner of Income-tax. The facts of that case were almost similar to the one before me except for one difference, viz., the impugned assessment in the Mysore case was mad ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e above statutory provision would not apply to an assessment proceeding. The attack against the validity of the impugned orders on the ground that they were passed without notice to the legal representatives cannot succeed for the above reason also. Counsel for the petitioner has relied on a Single Bench decision of the Calcutta High Court in Sahasrangshu Kanta Acharya v. Collector of Malda in support of his contention that an order of assessment which does not specify the name of the legal representative is bad under law. The impugned assessments in that case related to the years 1952-53, 1953-54 and 1954-55 ; and they were in respect of the income of a person who died on or about June 5, 1952. Proceedings for the assessments seem to hav ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... that the name of the legal representative was not specified therein. Lastly, it was contended that there are really seven legal representatives for the deceased, and that the orders of assessments are bad under law, since they have been served only on three of them. The assessee is admittedly one of the legal representatives ; and he has been duly served with the copies of the orders of assessments as well as notices of demand. No person who claims to be a legal representative and who was not been served with copies of the orders of assessments and demand notices has come before me to question the validity of the assessments. According to the respondent, there are only three legal representatives for the deceased; and all of them have be ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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