Section 151A

Section 151A — the law in short

What the courts have decided on section 151A, in one screen. Read this first; open an entry when you need the facts, the reasoning and the source.

• ITO v Tej Partap Singh Supreme CourtCuts both ways
  The High Court quashed my s.148 notice because the ward officer issued it instead of the faceless unit. Does that judgment still stand?
  No, not as it stands. On 10 April 2026 the Supreme Court set aside the High Court judgments that had quashed notices issued by the jurisdictional Assessing Officer, because s.147A, inserted by the Finance Act 2026 with effect from 1 April 2021, now defines the Assessing Officer for ss.148 and 148A as an officer other than the National Faceless Assessment Centre and the assessment units in s.144B(3). The Court remitted the matters, left the validity, scope, effect, retrospectivity and applicability of s.147A open for the High Courts, and stayed further assessment and reassessment proceedings in the meantime.
• Synokem Pharmaceuticals Ltd v ACIT High CourtHelps departmentValidity unconfirmed
  The Supreme Court remitted my JAO reassessment case and gave four weeks to amend. Will the High Court actually let me amend to challenge s.147A?
  Not as of right. The Delhi High Court refused. Delhi had already held in T.K.S. Builder Pvt. Ltd. that the Faceless Assessing Officer and the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer have concurrent jurisdiction, so s.147A took nothing away from this petitioner; the writ petition had in any event already been dismissed. The court held that whatever little remained to be argued had been washed away by the amendment and rejected the amendment application as misconceived.
• Sapphire Foods India Ltd v ACIT High CourtHelps taxpayerValidity unconfirmed
  The officer has reopened my scrutiny assessment because the audit party disagreed with what he allowed. Is that a fresh look or a change of opinion?
  On this decision, a change of opinion. Where the Assessing Officer had all the relevant material during the original scrutiny assessment, a reassessment driven by an audit objection on that same material is an impermissible review, and reopening on the same material is not permitted. The Court also held the notice barred by limitation because the extended period was unavailable in the absence of a failure to disclose material facts.
• T.K.S. Builders P Ltd v ITO High CourtHelps department
  Can the jurisdictional AO issue my s.148 notice, or must reassessment go through the faceless route?
  On this line of authority he can. The Delhi High Court held that the JAO and the faceless assessing officer have concurrent jurisdiction, that the Scheme notified under s.151A does not extinguish the JAO's power to issue notices under ss.148 and 148A, and that s.144B is procedural and is not itself a source of the power to assess or reassess.
• Jatinder Singh Bhangu v Union of India High CourtHelps taxpayerHigh Courts differ
  My reassessment notice under section 148 came from my own jurisdictional assessing officer, not through the faceless system. Is that notice good?
  No. The Punjab and Haryana High Court quashed section 148 notices issued by the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer, holding they contravene section 151A read with section 144B and the e-Assessment of Income Escaping Assessment Scheme, 2022 notified on 29 March 2022. Clause 3(b) of the scheme requires issuance of a section 148 notice through automated allocation and in a faceless manner. The Department's reliance on a CBDT office memorandum of 20 February 2023 and a Systems Directorate letter of 19 January 2024 failed: instructions and circulars can supplement but cannot supplant statutory provisions. Liberty was given to proceed in accordance with law.
• Hexaware Technologies Ltd v ACIT High CourtHelps taxpayerPartly overruled — read this first
  Your s.148 notice came from your own local officer, not from the faceless unit. Does that matter?
  In Bombay, yes. After the CBDT scheme notified under s.151A on 29 March 2022, only a Faceless Assessing Officer acting through automated allocation can issue a reassessment notice. There is no concurrent jurisdiction, and a notice from the jurisdictional officer was quashed.
• Kankanala Ravindra Reddy v ITO High CourtHelps taxpayerHigh Courts differ
  My section 148A(d) order and section 148 notice came from the local assessing officer after the 2022 faceless schemes started. Can I have them quashed on that ground alone?
  Yes. The Telangana High Court quashed the section 148A(d) orders and the consequential section 148 notices in a batch of over fifty writ petitions because they were issued by the local jurisdictional officer and not in the faceless manner required by section 151A read with section 144B and the two CBDT schemes of 28 and 29 March 2022. Where a statute requires a thing to be done in a particular manner, it must be done in that manner or not at all. The Department had also ignored the Supreme Court's direction in Ashish Agarwal to proceed under the substituted provisions. The consequential orders fell with the notices.

Listed strongest first: Supreme Court, then High Court, then Tribunal, then CBDT. Nothing here has yet been read in full by a chartered accountant — open an entry to see where it came from.