Point of Law: In interpreting a taxing statute, equitable considerations are entirely out of place. Nor can taxing statutes be interpreted on any presumptions or assumptions. The court must look squarely at the words of the statute and interpret them. It must interpret a taxing statute in the light of what is clearly expressed; it cannot imply anything which is not expressed; it cannot import provisions in the statute so as to supply any assumed deficiency.

JUDGMENT :

J.B.PARDIWALA, J.

ROHINTON FALI NARIMAN, J. – “Nothing is certain except death and taxes.” Thus spake Benjamin Franklin in his letter of 13.11.1789 to Jean Baptiste Leroy. To tax the dead is a contradiction in terms. Tax laws are made by the living to tax the living. What survives the dead person is what is left behind in the form of such person's property. [see Shabina Abraham and others vs. Collector of Central Excise and Customs, (2015) 10 SCC 770]

1. We are tempted to preface our judgment with the aforenoted observations of the Supreme Court as in the case on hand also the Revenue wants to proceed against the legal heir of the deceased by issuing a notice under Section 153C of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (for short, 'the Act 1961'). Such notice is issued to a dead person.

2. Since the issues raised in all the captioned writ applications are the same and the assessee is also the same, those were taken up for hearing analogously and are being disposed of by this common judgment and order.

3. For the sake of convenience, the Special Civil Application No.22441 of 2019 is treated as the lead matter.

4. By this writ-application under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the writ-applicant has prayed for the following reliefs :

“(A) Issue a writ of certiorari and/or a writ of mandamus and/or any other writ, direction or order to quash and set aside the impugned notice dated 29.03.2019 under Section 153C annexed at Annexure-A and with preliminary order dated 16.10.2019 annexed hereto at Annexure-C for proceeding and completing re-assessment proceedings.

(B) Pending admission, hearing and disposal of this petition, ad-interim relief be granted and the respondent be ordered to restrain from enforcing compliance of the impugned notice dated 29.03.2019 under Section 153C annexed at Annexure-A and/or taking any steps in this regard including ex-parte order or implementation of preliminary order dated 16.10.2019 annexed at Annexure- C.

(C) Award the cost of this petition.

(D) Grant such other and further reliefs as this Hon'ble Court deems fit.”

5. For the relevant Assessment Year, the return of income was filed by the writ-applicant on 6th January 2012 under Section 139 of the Act 1961. The writ-applicant (original assessee) passed away on 23rd April 2017. It is pertinent to note that for the Assessment Year 2017-18, the return was filed under Section 139 of the Act 1961 on 31st March 2018. The verification in the ITR-V is by Sushilaben Desai, the wife of deceased Bhupendrabhai Desai. The permanent account number stated in the verification is also that of the deceased Bhupendrabhai Desai. Same is the case for the Assessment Year 2018-19, wherein the return was filed on 31st August 2018 and for the Assessment Year 2019-20, the return was filed on 9th September 2019.

6. A notice under Section 153C of the Act 1961, dated 29th March 2019 came to be issued in the name of Bhupendrabhai Bhikhalal Desai. After a period of seven months from the date of the notice under Section 153C of the Act 1961, the son of the deceased, namely, Rajubhai Bhupendrabhai Desai, gave a reply dated 9th October 2019, informing the department for the first time that his father passed away way back on 23rd April 2017 and that the notice was issued to a dead person and, therefore, the proceedings be dropped.

7. The department, vide reply dated 16th October 2019, communicated the following to the legal heir of late Bhupendrabhai Bhikhalal Desai as under :

“To,

Late Bhupendra Babubhai Desai

C/o Legal Heir Raju B.Desai/Sushilaben Desai

Prop. Times Pharma

18, Bhimnath Society

Shahibaug, Ahmedabad 380004.

Sub : Rejection of objection raised vide letter dtd. 09.10.2019 with regard to the proceedings u/s. 153C of the Income-tax Act, 1961 for AY 2011-12 to 2017- 18.

Please refer to the above.

2. In connection to the above it is conveyed that the objection raised by you that the notice u/