Late Shri Girish Chand Aggarwal, New Delhi V. JCIT, Range- 32, New Delhi

ITA 6669/DEL/2017

AI Insights

The case involves an appeal by Smt. Rekha Aggarwal, the legal heir of Late Shri Girish Chand Aggarwal, against an assessment order passed by the Income Tax Officer (ITO), Ward 14(2), New Delhi. The assessment order was initially challenged before the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals)-11, New Delhi, and subsequently appealed to the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal. The primary legal issue was the validity of the assessment order passed under section 143(3) of the Income Tax Act, 1961, in the name of a deceased individual. The Tribunal considered additional grounds raised regarding the jurisdiction and legality of the assessment order, ultimately deciding in favor of the assessee based on precedents and legal principles concerning the assessment of deceased persons.

• Counselvise Citation: [2022] 140 COUNSELVISE.COM (IT) 115610 (ITAT-DELHI)
• Duration Of Justice: 4 month(s) 10 day(s)
• Appeal Type: Income Tax Appeal
• Pronouncement Date: 13-12-2022
• Appeal Filed By: Assessee
• Order Result: Allowed
• Bench Allotted: C
• Next Hearing Date: 07-12-2022
• Assessment Year: misc
• Appeal Filed On: 02-08-2022
• Other Referred Cases: PCIT vs. Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. [2019] 416 ITR 613 (SC), Savita Kapila vs. ACIT : [2020] 118 taxmann.com 46 (Delhi High Court), Chandreshbhai Jayantibhai Patel vs. ITO : [2019] 413 ITR 276 (Guj. High Court), VIKRAM BHATNAGAR V. ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX, decided on : 09th November, 2022
• Laws Referred To: Income Tax Act, 1961
• Result in Favour of: Assessee
• Court: TRIBUNAL
• Keywords: Set aside
• Section: 143(3)

Judgement Text

IN THE INCOME TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL DELHI (DELHI BENCH ‘C’ : NEW DELHI) BEFORE SH. N. K. BILLAIYA, ACCOUNTANT MEMBER AND SH. ANUBHAV SHARMA, JUDICIAL MEMBER ITA No.6669/Del/2017, A.Y. 2014-15 Late Shri Girish Chand Aggarwal (Through L/H Smt. Rekha Aggarwal, B-2/2056, Vasant Kung, New Delhi-70 Vs. JCIT, Range-32 New Delhi (APPELLANT) (RESPONDENT) Assessee by Sh. Deepesh Jain, Adv. Revenue by Sh. Arvind Kumar Bansal, Sr. DR Date of hearing: 08.12.2022 Date of Pronouncement: 14.12.2022 ORDER PER ANUBHAV SHARMA, JM: The appeal has been filed by the Assessee against order dated 04.09.2017 passed in appeal no. 225/16-17 for assessment year 2014-15, by the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals)-11, New Delhi (hereinafter referred to as the First Appellate Authority or in short ‘Ld. F.A.A.’) in regard to the appeal before it arising out of assessment order dated 14.12.2016 u/s 143(3) of the ITA No. 6669./Del/2017 Late Sh. Girish Chand Aggarwal 2 Income Tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Act’) passed by ITO, Ward 14(2), New Delhi (hereinafter referred as assessing officer or in short ‘Ld. AO). 2. Heard and perused the record. 3. An application for additional grounds in terms of Rule 11 of the Income Tax (Appellate Tribunal ) Rules, 1963 was filed on last date of hearing raising following legal grounds :- “1. That on the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, the assessment order passed under section 143(3) of the Act in the name of dead / non-existent person is without jurisdiction, illegal and bad in law and thus liable to be quashed. 2. That on the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, the action of the assessing officer in initiating and concluding assessment proceedings in the name of dead / non-existent person is void ab initio, illegal and bad in law. 4. The copy was supplied to the Ld. DR and the arguments were heard. It was submitted on behalf of the assessee that return of income for A.Y. 2014-15 was filed on 30.09.2015 by Smt. Rekha Aggarwal as legal heir of Shri Girish Chand Aggarwal who had died on 29.08.2014. It was submitted on behalf of the appellant that in spite of Ld. AO being aware of the fact of death of individual assessee, Mr. Girish Chand Aggarwal and observing specifically in the assessment order that the legal heir of assessee is being represented by Sh. R.K.Arora, Chartered Accountant, passed the impugned assessment order against that deceased assessee. Ld. Counsel relied judgment PCIT vs. Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. [2019] 416 ITR 613 (SC) ; Savita Kapila vs. ACIT : [2020] 118 taxmann.com 46 (Delhi High Court) ; Chandreshbhai Jayantibhai Patel vs. ITA No. 6669./Del/2017 Late Sh. Girish Chand Aggarwal 3 ITO : [2019] 413 ITR 276 (Guj. High Court) and contended that order passed is void ab initio being passed against dead person. Ld. DR however defended the assessment order submitting that no such issue was raised before Ld. CIT(A). 6. Considering the fact that the ground raised by way of additional grounds are purely legal in nature, the same are allowed to be raised. Further, there is no doubt from the copy of return available at page no. 1 to 3 of the paper book that the return was submitted by Rekha Aggarwal, as Legal heir of Late Girish Chand Aggarwal who was proprietor of M/s. Mahavir Building Material Store. The return was filed by the wife of deceased proprietor as legal heir only and not claiming to have succeeded to the proprietorship of her deceased husband. Further, in the assessment order Ld. AO specifically noticed the fact that the AR had appeared on behalf of the legal heir of the assessee, as the assessee has expired. Thus, on these admitted facts it becomes apparent that the ld. AO in spite of being aware of the fact that the return under process is of a deceased assessee proceeded to pass the order against the deceased assessee Shri Girish Chand Aggarwal only on his PAN without bringing on record all his legal representatives. 7. Hon’ble Delhi High Court in W.P.(C) 12215/2021 titled VIKRAM BHATNAGAR V. ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX, decided on : 09th November, 2022, has dealt with similar facts and issue and relying Savita Kapila vs. Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax in W.P.(C) No. 3258 of 2020 and W.P.(C) No. 2678/2020 titled Mrs. Sripathi Subbaraya Manohara vs. Principal Commissioner of Income Tax and another, held the assessment order to be null and void and liable to be set aside. That being so the legal and additional ground raised deserve to be allowed and the other grounds ITA No. 6669./Del/2017 Late Sh. Girish Chand Aggarwal 4 become redundant. The appeal of assessee is allowed and impugned assessment order is held to be null and void and accordingly set aside. Order pronounced in the open court on 14 th December, 2022. Sd/- Sd/- (N.K.BILLAIYA) (ANUBHAV SHARMA) ACCOUNTANT MEMBER JUDICIAL MEMBER Date:- 14 .12.2022 *Binita, SR.P.S* Copy forwarded to: 1. Appellant 2. Respondent 3. CIT 4. CIT(Appeals) 5. DR: ITAT ASSISTANT REGISTRAR ITAT, NEW DELHI