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TMI Blog1972 (5) TMI 18X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Act and was being assessed to tax till the assessment year 1968-69. He died on July 18, 1968. After his death, when proceedings for assessment were taken up the legal representatives took the stand that, though the income derived by Kunhi Bava till the date of his death, namely, July 18, 1968, was liable to be assessed at the hands of the legal representatives, they were liable to be assessed only as tenants-in-common for the period subsequent to July 18, 1968. Apparently, the Agricultural Income-tax Officer took the stand that, for the accounting year in which Kunhi Bava died, the income ought to be assessed as if Kunhi Bava was alive for the whole of the year and tax was payable as if the income was derived by him during that year. For t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... such executor, administrator or other legal representative were the assessee. (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 person and determine the agricultural income tax payable by him on the basis of such assessment, and for this purpose may, by the issue of the appropriate notice which would have had to be served upon the deceased person had he survived, require from the executor, administrator or other legal representative of the deceased person any accounts, documents ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... authorise levy of tax on receipts by the legal representatives of a deceased person in the years of assessment succeeding the year of account being the previous year in which such person died." In the same judgment their Lordships said thus: " By section 24B the legal representatives have, by fiction of law, become assessees as provided in that section but that fiction cannot be extended beyond the object for which it was enacted. As was observed by this court in Bengal Immunity Co. Ltd. v. State of Bihar legal fictions are only for a definite purpose and they are limited to the purpose for which they are created and should not be extended beyond that legitimate field. In the present case the fiction is limited to the cases provided in ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e of no application. Incidentally, reference was made to section 159 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, which deals with the liability of legal representatives and also section 24B of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922. Dealing with this question, the Supreme Court said thus : " The only provision which relates to the liability of the legal representative is section 159 of the Act. Sub-section (1) thereof provides that where a person dies his legal representative shall be liable to pay any sum which the deceased would have been liable to pay if he had not died in the like manner and to the same extent as the deceased. The corresponding provision in the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, was section 24B. In commissioner of Income-tax v. Amarchand N. Shro ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sed person up to the date of his death, but also the income received by the legal representatives during that year but not in any subsequent year. It is on this that reliance is placed by counsel for the revenue. According to him these decisions must be read as laying down the rule that if the legal representatives derived any income out of the property of the deceased during the previous year in which the death took place they are liable to be assessed on that income in addition to the income of the deceased up to the date of his death under section 24 of the Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1950. We do not think that this is the purport of the decisions of the Supreme Court. The language of section 24 of the Act appears to us to be clear. It ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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