Legal heirs not bound to inform I-T dept about assessee's death, rules HC

The court reasoned that there might be instances where the deceased assessee was estranged from legal representatives or the deceased assessee might have bequeathed their wealth to charity

The Delhi High Court on Thursday ruled that there was no obligation on the legal heir to inform the tax department about the death of a taxpayer.
 
“This Court is of the view that in the absence of a statutory provision it is difficult to cast a duty upon the legal representatives to intimate the factum of death of an assessee to the income-tax department,” the court ruled.
 
It said there might after all be cases where legal representatives would be estranged from the deceased assessee or the deceased assessee might have bequeathed their entire wealth to a