In an income tax recovery case of a widow on her inherited assets from her deceased husband, the Madras High Court ordered the disposition of the objections before the Income Tax department within 4 weeks. It was also ordered that there should be no appropriation from the bank account attached until the objections are disposed of.

The petitioner, Saisivajyoti is the wife of late Mr.A.Ravi Shankar Prasad, who is said to be a defaulting assessee. She filed a writ petition challenging the notices issued under Section 226(3) of the Income Tax Act, 1961. This income tax Section empowers the income tax officer to issue notice with regards to the tax recovery.

The petitioner’s counsel, Mr.Suhrith Parthasarathy submitted that although the challenge is to the notices, objections were filed by the petitioner on 17.04.2024 to the notices. He requested to  consider such objections filed and  disposed of by the first respondent.

The assets of the petitioner would be liable for attachment if the petitioner had inherited assets as the legal heir of the defaulting assessee. If a reasonable time frame is fixed, the income tax department’s counsel submitted that the petitioner’s objections would be considered and disposed of, submitted by the respondent.

Thus, the Madras High Court bench of Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy disposed of the writ petition by directing the first respondent to consider and dispose of the petitioner’s objections dated 17.04.2024 and 01.06.2024 within a period of four weeks and also instructed to provide reasonable opportunity to be heard.

Also, the court clarified that the attachment shall continue in force until such objections are disposed of subject to the condition that no appropriations are made from the attached bank account until then.

Mr.V.Mahalingam, Senior Standing Counsel appeared for the department.