Ela Roy v. The Income Tax Officer, Ward

01.07.2022. p.b.Sl. No.13. W.P.A. 12407 of 2022 Ela Roy Vs.The Income Tax Officer,Ward No.37(1), Kolkata & Ors. Mr. Soumitra Chowdhury,Mr. Avra Mazumder,Mr. Sk. Md. Bilwal Hossain,Mr. Binayak Gupta. ……..for the petitioner. Mr. S. Roy Chowdhury. ………for the respondent. Heard learned advocates appearing for the parties. By this writ petition, petitioner has challenged theimpugned notice under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act,1961 dated 28[th] March, 2021 relating to the assessmentyear 2014-15 and subsequent assessment order dated22[nd] March, 2022 and initiation of penalty proceeding, onthe ground that the issuance of notice and the finalassessment order are no tenable in the eye of law since theaforesaid notice dated 28[th] March, 2021 has been issuedagainst a dead person who died on 7[th] April, 2017 and thepetitioner has annexed the death certificate issued by theKolkata Municipal Corporation. It is also on record thatafter receiving the impugned notice under Section 148 ofthe Act, petitioner who is the sister of the noticee hasinformed the assessing officer by her letter dated 24[th]April, 2021. Mr. Roy Chowdhury, learned advocate appearing forthe Income Tax authorities opposing this writ petitionsubmits that the petitioner being the sister of the noticee,in response to notice under Section 148 of the Act has filedthe return. Petitioner submits that she being a lay person,due to inadvertence has filed the return on behalf of herbrother noticee though she had already informed thedepartment at the same time that the noticee has alreadyexpired. Be that as it may, the fact remains that noproceeding can be initiated against a dead person and theassessing offier after having notice and knowledge that thenoticee has already expired should not have proceededand passed the final assessment order against the noticee. Considering the facts and circumstances of this caseas appears from record the aforesaid impugned noticedated 28[th] March, 2021 under Section 148 of the Act andall subsequent proceedings on the basis of the aforesaidnotice are quashed. However, quashing of the impugnednotice and proceeding will not prevent the assessing officerconcerned to initiate any fresh proceeding in future inaccordance with law. With this observation and direction, this writpetition being WPA 12407 of 2022 stands disposed of. (Md. Nizamuddin, J.)