An order issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes, as F. No. 187/7/2024-ITA-I, dated 1 August 2024. Issued under proviso to sub-section (5) of section 144B.
An order of the Board under the proviso to sub-section (5) of section 144B. Section 144B(5) requires the enquiry or verification functions referred to in section 144B(3)(iii) to be carried out through the Verification Unit in a faceless manner, but the proviso lets the Board specify circumstances in which that requirement is relaxed. This order specifies those circumstances. It is short: a recital naming the proviso, three specified circumstances, and a commencement clause.
This is an order of the Board. An order is issued under a power the Act itself gives the Board — most often section 119, which lets it direct its own officers and, in the cases the section names, relax a requirement. Read the enabling words before deciding how far it reaches: the power is administrative, and it cannot rewrite the charge.
It specifies three circumstances for the purposes of the enquiry or verification functions referred to in section 144B(3)(iii) carried out by the Verification Unit. The first is non-availability of a digital footprint in respect of the assessee or any other person. The second is that electronic or online verification is not possible because there has been no response to a notice issued to the assessee or any other person. The third is that physical verification of assets or premises or persons is required, and this one applies regardless of whether a digital footprint is present. The order states that it comes into force with immediate effect. It specifies the circumstances and nothing further; it lays down no procedure for the verification itself and prescribes no form.
Faceless assessment is built on the assumption that everything can be done on record and online. Some enquiries cannot be: there is no digital trail on the person, the notice draws no response at all, or the point can only be settled by going and looking at the asset or the premises. The proviso to section 144B(5) anticipates this, and the Board has now filled it in so the Verification Unit knows when it may step outside the faceless mode.
It is addressed to the department and governs when its own Verification Unit may act outside the faceless route. It creates no obligation for the assessee, though he will feel it if a physical verification follows. It does not bind the Tribunal or a court, which would test any verification against section 144B itself; an assessee may nonetheless hold the department to the limits the order draws.
With immediate effect from its date in August 2024. No end date and no transitional provision.
These are the circumstances in which a departure from faceless verification is permitted, not a general licence for physical enquiry. Where a physical verification has taken place, check which of the three circumstances the department says it fell under, and whether a notice was in fact issued before the second is claimed. The order settles no question of validity of the assessment itself.
the Central Board of Direct Taxes hereby specifies the following circumstances, for the purpose of enquiry or verification functions referred to in Section 144B(3)(iii) of the Act by the Verification Unit
— the Central Board of Direct Taxes, order F. No. 187/7/2024-ITA-I, 1 August 2024. Read it in the department’s own PDF.
| Under the Income-tax Act, 1961 | Now, in the Income-tax Act, 2025 |
|---|---|
| section 144B | section 273 |
The High Court quashed my s.148 notice because the ward officer issued it instead of the faceless unit. Does that judgment still stand?
The faceless order came without any show-cause notice or draft order. Will it just be annulled?
I did not tick s.115BAA in the return and filed Form 10-IC late. Can I still get the concessional rate?
The faceless show-cause notice gave me four days to reply. Is that enough time?
I asked for a personal hearing in the faceless assessment and was refused. Does the order survive?
Can a faceless order stand if the mandatory procedure was skipped?
What here is the Board’s and what is ours. The document is the Central Board of Direct Taxes’ own. Its number, its date and the words quoted above are reproduced from the Board’s own PDF, which is here. Everything else on this page is ours: the plain-English account of what the document is and what it does, the reading of which provision it turns on, the note on what to watch, and the choice of cases. Where our account and the document part, the document governs.
An order of the Board binds the department, not you and not a court. The Board writes to its own officers. An assessee may hold the department to an order or an instruction that helps him; the department cannot hold an assessee to one that hurts him, and the Tribunal and the courts decide the law for themselves. This is the most common mistake made with this material, and it is worth making twice: a direction of the Board is not a section of the Act.
What we could not settle. The scan renders oblique strokes as digits, so the F. No. is reconstructed from a line that reads '1871712024-ITA-I'. The day in the printed date line is not legible; the date shown is the one the department lists the order under.