Primary Agricultural Cooperative Credit Society Ltd. Vs ITO (ITAT Hyderabad)
Faceless Means Faceless: ITAT Hyderabad Quashes Reassessment Issued by Jurisdictional AO
The ITAT Hyderabad allowed the assessee’s appeal for AY 2016–17, holding that the reassessment proceedings were void ab initio as the notice under section 148 and the order under section 148A(d) were issued by the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer (JAO) instead of the Faceless Assessing Officer (FAO), in violation of the Faceless Assessment Scheme.
The Tribunal noted that CBDT Notification No. 18/2022 dated 29.03.2022, issued under section 151A, mandates that all reassessment proceedings and issuance of notice under section 148 on or after 29.03.2022 must be carried out in a faceless manner. In the present case, both the section 148A(d) order and section 148 notice were dated 22.03.2023, clearly after the notification came into force, yet they bore the name and designation of the JAO, who had ceased to have jurisdiction for such actions.
Relying on the binding judgment of the Telangana High Court in Kankanala Ravindra Reddy and a long line of High Court decisions (including Hexaware Technologies Ltd.), the Tribunal held that a notice issued by an authority lacking jurisdiction is a nullity, and all consequential proceedings automatically stand vitiated. The pendency of SLPs before the Supreme Court was held to be no ground to disregard binding High Court rulings.
Accordingly, the Tribunal set aside the order of the CIT(A) and quashed the reassessment order, granting liberty to the parties to seek revival of the appeal if the Supreme Court later takes a contrary view on the issue
FULL TEXT OF THE ORDER OF ITAT HYDERABAD
