i. The issuance of the notice to a dead assessee is not a mere technical defect which can be corrected under Section 292B of the Act. The issuance of the notice to a dead assessee and the consequent proceedings pursuant thereto would be without jurisdiction and, therefore, null and void.

ii. The want of a valid notice affects the jurisdiction of the Assessing Officer to proceed with the assessment and thus affects the validity of the proceedings for assessment or re-assessment. A notice issued under Section 148 of the Act against a dead person is invalid, unless the legal representative submits to the jurisdiction of the Assessing Officer without raising any objection.

24. We are of the view that the same principle as referred to above would apply even to a notice issued to a dead assessee under Section 153C of the Act. It is not in dispute that the legal heir of late Bhupendrabhai Desai had not participated in the proceedings. All that the legal heir of late Bhupendrabhai Desai did was to inform the Assessing Officer about the death of his father and requested to drop the proceedings. It is true that although the father passed away in the year 2017, yet the legal heir did not inform the department upto October 2019. However, at the same time, we should not overlook the fact that even after coming to know about the demise of late Bhupendrabhai, the department could have issued a valid notice to the legal heir as the period of limitation of 21 months had not expired. We fail to understand what prevented the department from issuing a valid notice to the legal heir within the prescribed time period.