Dismissing the petition the Court held that The National Faceless Assessment Scheme is a piece of welfare legislation with the purpose of optimising utilisation of the resources through economies of scale and functional specialisation. A bare perusal of section 144B of the Income-tax Act, 1961 would indicate that the assessment, reassessment and recomputation under sub-section (3) of section 143 or under section 144 or under section 147 shall be made in a faceless manner as per the procedure provided in section 144B. The provision further elaborates each step to be taken in the faceless assessment. The Faceless Assessment Scheme does not provide any deviation from the principles of assessment as provided under various provisions of the Act. The authority as prescribed under the Income-tax Act remains the same. The Legislature has brought a Scheme only to make the procedure faceless. The principles of law and other parameters as provided under the law for the purpose of assessment remain the same. There is no illegality in the National Faceless Assessment Scheme as provided in the statute under section 144B. (AY.2016-17)
S. K. Srivastava v. CBDT (2022) 445 ITR 390/ 327 CTR 397/215 DTR 385 /139 taxmann.com 6 (Delhi)(HC)
S. 144B : Faceless Assessment-The principles of law and other parameters as provided under the law for the purpose of assessment remain the same-Scheme has been introduced in order to keep pace with dynamics of the changed environment to march step by step towards making the systems efficient and transparent-Scheme of Faceless Assessment legal and valid. [S. 2(7A), 116, 143(3)) 144, Art. 226]