2024 (7) TMI 971

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....ief that the action as taken by the respondents in regard to re-opening of the petitioner's assessment, by resorting to the procedure under Section 148A (a) and (d) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (for short, the "Act") and culminating into a final notice dated 25 April 2023 being issued under Section 148 of the Act be quashed and set aside. The assessment year in question is 2019-20. 3. The substantive prayers as made in the petition are required to be noted which reads thus: "(a) That this Hon'ble Court may be pleased to issue a Writ of Certiorari or a Writ in the nature of Certiorari or any other appropriate Writ, order or direction, calling for the records of the Petitioner's case and after going into the legality and propriety t....

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....der Section 148A(b) of the Act (Ex-A) (ii) the impugned order dated April 25, 2023, passed under section 148A (d) passed by the Respondent No. 1 (Ex-B) and, (iii) the impugned Notice dated April 25, 2023, issued under section 148 of the Act (Ex - C);" 4. Learned counsel for the petitioner, at the outset would submit that the impugned notice as issued by the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer (for short, "JAO") is in the teeth of the provisions of Section 151A of the Income Tax Act, 1961, in as much as the scheme for faceless assessment as notified by the Central Government by notification dated 29 March 2022 as made applicable for taking an action under such provisions, has not been followed. It is submitted that the JAO had no author....

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....ucting of enquiries or issuance of show-cause notice or passing of order under section 148A] or sanction for issue of such notice under section 151, so as to impart greater efficiency, transparency and accountability by- (a) eliminating the interface between the income-tax authority and the assessee or any other person to the extent technologically feasible; (b) optimising utilisation of the resources through economies of scale and functional specialisation; (c) introducing a team-based assessment, reassessment, recomputation or issuance or sanction of notice with dynamic jurisdiction. (2) The Central Government may, for the purpose of giving effect to the scheme made under sub-section (1), by notification in the Official Gazett....

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....the Act, (b) and the issuance of notice under Section 148 of the Act, shall be through automated allocation, in accordance with risk management strategy formulated by the Board as referred to in Section 148 of the Act for issuance of notice and in a faceless manner, to the extent provided in Section 144B of the Act with reference to making assessment or reassessment of total income or loss of assessee. The impugned notice dated 27th August, 2022 has been issued by respondent No. 1 (JAO) and not by the NFAC, which is not in accordance with the aforesaid Scheme. 35. Further, in our view, there is no question of concurrent jurisdiction of the JAO and the FAO for issuance of notice under Section 148 of the Act or even for passing assessme....