Section 245 — Faceless jurisdiction of income-tax authorities. Successor to s.130 of the 1961 Act.
Section 245 is in Chapter XIV — Tax Administration, which runs from section 236 to section 261.
Sub-section (1) empowers the Central Government, by notification, to make a scheme for the exercise of powers and performance of functions conferred on income-tax authorities referred to in section 241, for vesting jurisdiction with the Assessing Officer under section 242, for the power to transfer cases under section 243, and for the exercise of jurisdiction on a change of incumbency under section 244.
Sub-section (2) states what the scheme must achieve — greater efficiency, transparency and accountability — and how: by eliminating the interface between the income-tax authority and the assessee or any other person, to the extent technologically feasible; by optimising resources through economies of scale and functional specialisation; and by introducing a team-based exercise of powers and performance of functions by two or more income-tax authorities concurrently, in respect of any area, persons or classes of persons, incomes or classes of income, or cases or classes of cases, with dynamic jurisdiction.
Sub-section (3) allows the Central Government, by notification, to direct that any provisions of the Act shall not apply, or shall apply with such exceptions, modifications and adaptations as specified, to give effect to the scheme. Sub-section (4) requires every notification under sub-sections (1) and (3) to be laid before each House of Parliament as soon as may be after it is issued.
The Act's jurisdictional provisions assume a named officer with a territorial or class-based charge, and a faceless system cannot work under them unchanged. This section supplies the enabling power to build a scheme with dynamic jurisdiction and concurrent team working, and to disapply or adapt the provisions that would otherwise stand in the way, with the resulting notifications kept under parliamentary view.
Nothing in this section itself changes a jurisdiction; the operative content lives in the notification. The most consequential part is sub-section (3): a notification may direct that provisions of the Act shall not apply, or shall apply with exceptions, modifications and adaptations, so text you are reading elsewhere may be displaced for a case within the scheme. The elimination of interface is qualified by "to the extent technologically feasible", and team-based concurrent exercise means the officer named on a notice is not necessarily the sole authority acting.
A taxpayer does not deal with this section directly — it is addressed to the Central Government and the income-tax authorities. You meet its effects: a notice or order issued under a faceless scheme, without a named territorial officer, traces its authority to a notification made under this section.
eliminating the interface between the income-tax authority and the assessee or any other person, to the extent technologically feasible
introducing a team-based exercise of powers and performance of functions by two or more income-tax authorities, concurrently, in respect of any area, or persons or classes of persons, or incomes or classes of income, or cases or classes of cases, with dynamic jurisdiction
direct that any of the provisions of this Act shall not apply or shall apply with such exceptions, modifications and adaptations as specified in such notification
See the full 1961 to 2025 concordance.