NFAC Doesn't Take Away Jurisdictional Assessing Officer's Power To Initiate Reassessment U/S 148 Income Tax Act: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has held that the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer (JAO) and Faceless Assessing Officer (FAO) have jurisdiction to issue reassessment notices under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961.The position has been in dispute since introduction of the E-Assessment of Income Escaping Assessment Scheme, 2022, which led to the setting up of the National Faceless Assessment Centre with Faceless Assessing Officers.Petitioner-assessee argued that now, FAO alone has jurisdiction to issue notices under Section 148 of the Act, and the JAO is wholly divested of such power. Many High Courts including the Bombay High Court, Punjab & Haryana High Court and Rajasthan High Court have ruled in this favour, holding that notice under Section 148 cannot be issued by a Jurisdictional Assessing Officer after introduction of faceless assessment scheme.Counsel appearing for Petitioner-assessees, who challenged the action initiated by JAO on ground of lack of jurisdiction, submitted that some of these judgments were carried in appeal but the Supreme Court in ADIT (International Taxation)-2, Hyderabad & Anr. v. Deepanjan Roy, SLP(C) Diary No.33956/2025 dismissed SLP, thereby settling the issue in their favour.Revenue on the other hand argued that the Delhi High Court has followed a consistent position since TKS Builders (P.) Ltd. v. Income Tax Officer, (2024) that insofar as the jurisdiction of Delhi is concerned, both JAO and FAO would have concurrent jurisdiction to initiate proceedings for reassessment. Similar was the view taken by the Madras High Court.It further submitted that dismissal of SLP in Deepanjan Roy (supra) was in limine, and the same cannot be said to have settled the law.It also pointed out that SLPs against the judgment in TKS Builders (supra) is pending adjudication before the Supreme Court and as such, the issue cannot be said to be settled by the Supreme Court.Agreeing with the Revenue, the division bench of Justices V. Kameswar Rao and Vinod Kumar said,“This Court has maintained a consistent position, that both JAO and FAO possess concurrent jurisdiction to initiate reassessment proceedings under Section 148 of the Act…this Court has settled the law relating to the issue in TKS Builders (supra), which though under challenge before the Supreme Court, has not been stayed.”As such, the Court held it is bound by TKS Builders (supra) and dismissed the challenge.Appearance: Counsel for the petitioners : Mr. Kumail Abbas, Mr. Deepanshu Mehta, Ms. Sahar Irfan and Ms. Riya, Jain, Advs. Counsel for the respondent : Mr. Anurag Ojha, SSC, Mr. V. K. Saksena, JSC, Ms. Hemlata Rawat, JSC and Mr. Abhay Singh, Ms. Tanuja & Mr. Saurabh, Advs. Mr. Sunil Agarwal, SSC, Mr. Viplav Acharya, JSC, Ms. Priya Sarkar, JSC, Mr. Anugrah Dwivedi and Mr. Utkarsh Tiwari, Advs.Case title: Inder Dev Gupta v. Assistant Commissioner Of Income Tax Central Circle 2-Delhi (and batch)Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Del) 1574Case no.: W.P.(C) 16937/2025 (and batch)Click here to read order

NFAC Doesn't Take Away Jurisdictional Assessing Officer's Power To Initiate Reassessment U/S 148 Income Tax Act: Delhi High Court

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