Williams Lea India Private Limited Vs Additional/Joint/Deputy/ACIT/ITO (Madras High Court)
This batch of writ petitions before the Madras High Court concerned assessments framed under the faceless assessment regime introduced by Notification No. 61 dated 12.09.2019, as amended by Notification No. 60 dated 13.08.2020 under the Income Tax Act, 1961. The scheme was introduced to ensure uniformity in assessments and eliminate complications arising from personal interaction between assessees and officers. It provided for centralized processing of returns, random allocation to Regional Assessment Units, and adherence to detailed procedures to ensure compliance with principles of natural justice. The procedure later became statutorily enshrined in Section 144B with effect from 01.04.2021.
The common grievance in the batch of 10 writ petitions was violation of principles of natural justice in the framing of assessments. The Court noted that both assessees and the Department had faced difficulties in adhering to timelines under the Notification. By consensus, revised timelines were fixed in the present order.
Across the petitions, the primary procedural irregularities included denial of personal hearing despite specific requests, failure to consider adjournment requests, insufficient time to respond to show cause notices, and technical or administrative lapses in the faceless system.
In several cases, assessees had specifically requested personal hearings in their written submissions. The Department contended that the assessees had failed to activate the link on the income tax portal required to avail a personal hearing. The Court rejected this contention, holding that where an assessee expressly seeks a personal hearing in writing, such request must be honoured and cannot be denied on hyper-technical grounds such as failure to activate a portal link.
