ITO Vs Tej Partap Singh (Supreme Court of India)
The Supreme Court disposed of a batch of thousands of appeals arising from reassessment proceedings under the Income-tax Act, 1961, involving a common legal issue regarding the authority competent to issue orders under Section 148A(d) and notices under Section 148 after the introduction of the faceless reassessment framework. The appeals arose because several High Courts had quashed reassessment orders and notices issued by Jurisdictional Assessing Officers (JAOs), holding that such actions should have been undertaken through the prescribed faceless mechanism or competent Faceless Assessment Officers (FAOs), while other High Courts had upheld the jurisdiction of JAOs, resulting in conflicting judicial views.
The Court noted that the Finance Act, 2021 had amended the reassessment provisions under Sections 147 to 151 with effect from 1 April 2021. Subsequently, the Central Board of Direct Taxes introduced the e-Assessment of Income Escaping Assessment Scheme, 2022 under Section 151A through Notification No. 18/2022 dated 29 March 2022, providing that reassessment and issuance of notices under Section 148 would be carried out through automated allocation and a faceless mechanism. This gave rise to disputes regarding whether JAOs continued to possess authority to issue notices and pass orders under Section 148A(d) or whether such powers vested exclusively with the National Faceless Assessment Centre (NFAC).
