On a writ petition challenging initial notice under section\u00a0148A(b), the order under section\u00a0148A(d)\u00a0and the consequent notice issued under section\u00a0148\u00a0by the jurisdictional Assessing Officer for the assessment year 2017-18 on the ground that they were invalid and without jurisdiction since they were in contravention of the provisions of section\u00a0151A\u00a0read with section\u00a0144B\u00a0and the Scheme notified by the Central Government vide notification dated March 29, 2022 ([2022] 442 ITR (St.) 198) under section\u00a0151A\u00a0whereunder the Revenue was under a mandate to follow the faceless mechanism, in resorting to any procedure under section\u00a0148A\u00a0to issue notice under section\u00a0148\u00a0by the jurisdictional Assessing Officer. Allowing the petition the Court held that, \u00a0(i) that the contention that the category of cases as notified under order(s) dated March 31, 2021 and September 6, 2021 issued under section\u00a0119\u00a0providing for exclusion of cases assigned to the Central and International taxation charges from the applicability of section\u00a0144B\u00a0was concerned, could not be accepted to be the correct position in law. Firstly, the order dated March 31, 2021 issued under sub-section\u00a0(2)\u00a0of section\u00a0144B\u00a0of the Act and order dated September 6, 2021 issued under section\u00a0119\u00a0applied only in respect of assessment orders to be passed, as clearly seen from the content of both such orders. Secondly, the Scheme notified under section\u00a0151A\u00a0under notification dated March 29, 2022 ([2022] 442 ITR (St.) 198) applying the procedure of faceless mechanism to the proceedings under section\u00a0148A\u00a0and section\u00a0148\u00a0was neither subject to the applicability of the prior order dated March 31, 2021 read with September 6, 2021 nor was it explicit so as to include the applicability of these orders to the Scheme as notified under section\u00a0151A. Thirdly, it would be doing violence to the language of the notification or Scheme dated March 29, 2022 ([2022] 442 ITR (St.) 198) to read into such notification what had not been expressly provided for or something which was kept outside the purview of the notifications dated March 31, 2021 and September 6, 2021. It would be uncalled for and also not appropriate for the court to read into the Scheme dated March 29, 2022 ([2022] 442 ITR (St.) 198), something which is not included. It could not be said that the Central Government was not aware as to what was provided for in the notifications dated March 31, 2021 and September 6, 2021 so as to not include it under the Scheme dated March 29, 2022 ([2022] 442 ITR (St.) 198). It would thus be not correct, that the court had read into the Scheme dated March 29, 2022 ([2022] 442 ITR (St.) 198) the applicability of notifications dated March 31, 2021 and September 6, 2021. Such approach would also be contrary to the mandate of section\u00a0151A\u00a0and to the Scheme framed thereunder. Accepting the Revenue\u2019s contention to read into the Scheme as contained in the notification dated March 29, 2022 ([2022] 442 ITR (St.) 198), the applicability of the order dated March 31, 2021 and September 6, 2021 would amount to not only rewriting such Scheme issued by the Central Government but reading something into the provisions of section\u00a0151A\u00a0which the Legislature itself had not provided for. Section\u00a0151A\u00a0and the Scheme notified below it stood independent under the notification dated March 31, 2022. \u00a0Followed \u00a0Hexaware Technologies Ltd. v. ACIT (2024) 464 ITR 430 (Bom)(HC) \u00a0Capitalg LP\u00a0 v. ACIT\u00a0 \u00a0(IT)\u00a0(2024) 468 ITR 325 (Bom)(HC) T.\u00a0Venkataramana Reddy Patloola v. Dy. CIT (2024) 468 ITR 181 (Telangana (HC)\u00a0 wherein the Courts have \u00a0consistently held that in respect of Central charges and International taxation charges, the proceedings under section\u00a0148A\u00a0read with section\u00a0148\u00a0of the Act would be required to be held in a faceless manner, applying the provisions of section\u00a0144B\u00a0and as effected under the provisions of section 151A read with the Scheme notified by the Central Government vide notification dated March 29, 2022 ([2022] 442 ITR (St.) 198). Accordingly \u00a0the assessee\u2019s case would not fall outside the applicability of the provisions of section\u00a0151A\u00a0and the Scheme. Hence the initial notice issued under section\u00a0148A(b), the order passed under section\u00a0148A(d)\u00a0and the consequent notice issued under section\u00a0148\u00a0by the jurisdictional Assessing Officer fell outside the purview of the faceless mechanism and hence were illegal and without jurisdiction and accordingly set aside.\u00a0(AY. 2017-18)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
S. 148A: Reassessment-Conducting inquiry, providing opportunity before issue of notice-Faceless Assessment-Central charges and International Taxation charges-Notices issued and order passed by Jurisdictional Assessing Officer outside purview Of faceless mechanism-Notices and order illegal and without jurisdiction and hence set aside. [S. 119, 147, 148, 148A9(b) 148A(d) 151A, Art. 226] <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-income-tax-act"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9S2Rw-cTw","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49570"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56332,"href":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49570\/revisions\/56332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}