Snehdham Trust Vs ACIT (Gujarat High Court)
The judgment concerns a large batch of more than four hundred matters challenging the jurisdiction of the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer (JAO) to issue notices under Section 148 of the Income-tax Act after 01.04.2022 in light of the Faceless Jurisdiction Scheme, 2022 and the e-Assessment of Income Escaping Assessment Scheme, 2022 (collectively referred to as “Scheme, 2022”). The petitioners argued that, after the introduction of these schemes, only a Faceless Assessing Officer (FAO) could issue such notices; conversely, the Revenue argued that the JAO continued to have jurisdiction.
The Court records that multiple High Courts had taken divergent views on this issue. High Courts of Bombay, Telangana, Punjab & Haryana, and Rajasthan held that JAOs lack jurisdiction after 01.04.2022; while Delhi and Calcutta High Courts took the opposite view, holding that JAOs retain jurisdiction to issue notices. The petitions were kept pending awaiting the Supreme Court’s decision in a similar matter, but due to the magnitude of cases and need for clarity, the Court decided the issue.
1. Contentions of Petitioners
Petitioners argued that the Scheme, 2022, issued under Section 151A, mandates that:
- Assessment, reassessment, recomputation under Section 147, and
- Issuance of notice under Section 148
shall be done through automated allocation and in a faceless manner, to the extent provided in Section 144B.
They emphasized that the language of the Scheme is unambiguous and requires that notice under Section 148 must be issued by an automated, faceless mechanism, not by the JAO.
