No, the Hon’ble Madras High Court in Sahaya Kapil Bosco v. Deputy State Tax Officer (ST), Nagercoil Rural Assessment Circle [2025 TAXONATION 1462 (MADRAS)] held that an assessment order passed in the name of a deceased assessee is null and void, and liable to be set aside where the legal heir was not given an opportunity to reply to the show cause notice.
In this case, the petitioner was the son and legal heir of Late Shri M. John Bosco, a registered person under GST who passed away on 06.05.2021. Despite the assessee’s death, the department proceeded to pass an assessment order dated 20.08.2024 for the tax period April 2019 to March 2020 in the name of the deceased person, without issuing notice to the petitioner or any other legal representative. The petitioner approached the High Court seeking one opportunity to reply to the show cause notice that preceded the impugned order and expressed willingness to cooperate in the proceedings.
The Court found merit in the petitioner’s submission and held that since the impugned order had been passed against a dead person, and the petitioner, being the son of the deceased, may have an interest in the business, the assessment could not be sustained. Accordingly, the Hon’ble Court set aside the impugned order and remanded the matter back to the respondent to pass fresh orders after affording an opportunity to the petitioner to reply to the show cause notice. The petitioner was directed to file his reply within 30 days, and the department was instructed to conclude the proceedings within three months.
Author’s Comments
This case exemplifies a classic lapse in procedural awareness and strategic pleading before constitutional courts. The petitioner approached the Hon’ble High Court seeking remand for fresh adjudication, rather than challenging the very foundation and jurisdiction of the impugned assessment order. In the author’s view, this was a missed opportunity to secure final relief by urging the court to quash the proceedings as non-est, considering that the assessment order was passed in the name of a deceased person without notice to any legal heir.
As a matter of settled law, any proceedings initiated or continued against a dead person are void ab initio. Under Order XXII Rule 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, the death of a party renders the proceedings unsustainable if the right to sue does not survive. Similarly, Section 169 of the CGST Act, 2017—which governs service of notice—presumes that communication must be made to a living and legally competent person. Any notice or order passed in the name of a deceased person is a jurisdictional nullity.
Moreover, Section 93 of the CGST Act, 2017, which provides for recovery of tax dues from the estate of a deceased person, only applies where such liability has been determined while the person was still alive. In this case, no such pre-existing determination existed, and hence Section 93 cannot be invoked to justify posthumous proceedings.
Unlike the Income-tax Act, which under Section 159(2)(b) expressly permits initiation or continuation of proceedings against legal representatives, the CGST Act contains no such enabling provision. Therefore, in the absence of legislative support, initiation of fresh proceedings against legal heirs is wholly illegal.
From a litigation strategy standpoint, the better course would have been to seek quashing of the proceedings entirely, citing lack of jurisdiction, absence of proper notice, and legal non-existence of the assessee. The Hon’ble Supreme Court in CIT v. Scindia Steam Navigation Co. Ltd. [1961 AIR SC 1633] clarified that mandamus lies only when specific reliefs have been demanded and denied—which again highlights the importance of framing precise and well-thought-out reliefs while invoking writ jurisdiction.
GST Case Law Sahaya Kapil Bosco v. Deputy State Tax Officer (ST), Nagercoil Rural Assessment Circle
Citation-2025 TAXONATION 1462 (MADRAS)
CA Ritesh Arora
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