Covers s.144B, s.143(3), s.156, s.142(1), s.68, s.144, s.144C, s.270A and 9 more. 13 entries, strongest first, with what each one decided in a sentence. Read down the list, then open the entry that fits your facts. The Faceless Assessment & Appeals hub cross-lists everything that touches this area, including entries filed under another subject.
The faceless order came without any show-cause notice or draft order. Will it just be annulled? No — expect a remand. The Supreme Court accepted that making a variation without serving the show-cause notice and draft assessment order breached s.144B and the principles of natural justice, but held the High Court should have sent the matter back to the Assessing Officer for a fresh order rather than simply setting the assessment aside.
I asked NFAC for a video hearing in my appeal and never got a link. Can that order stand? No. A virtual hearing is mandatory once it is specifically requested in faceless appellate proceedings, and passing the appellate order without ever providing the video-conference link violated natural justice. The order was set aside, the appeal restored for a proper virtual hearing, and the consequential penalty orders under ss.271AAC(1) and 270A were quashed with it.
The faceless show-cause notice gave me four days to reply. Is that enough time? No. The CBDT's Standard Operating Procedure of 3 August 2022 for faceless assessment requires seven days to answer a show-cause notice. A notice issued on a Saturday with a deadline at 1.02 p.m. the following Friday gave four working days to respond to a proposed addition of over Rs. 5.22 crores, and the assessment order was set aside on that ground alone.
The Department admits it refused the video hearing but says limitation was about to expire. Is that a defence? No. The Gujarat High Court quashed an assessment where the request for a video conference hearing made on 4 March 2024 was not granted and the order followed on 15 March 2024, rejecting the plea that earlier adjournments had left the Department no time before the 31 March deadline.
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.
I asked for a personal hearing in my faceless assessment and never got one. Is the order bad? Yes. Allahabad held that once a request is made under s.144B(6)(vii), granting the hearing is mandatory and not discretionary; fixing the rescheduled hearing on a Sunday, the day after the adjournment application, was not a real opportunity.
You are an eligible assessee with a transfer pricing adjustment and the faceless unit passed a final order instead of a draft. What relief will the court give? The order goes, but not always as a clean quashing. The Madras High Court set aside a final order passed three days after the show cause notice cum draft assessment order and directed that the impugned order be treated as a draft assessment order, leaving the assessee to work out its remedies against it under s.144B.
I asked for a personal hearing in the faceless assessment and was refused. Does the order survive? No. The Court read 'may' in s.144B(7)(viii) as 'must': once the assessee asks for a personal hearing it has to be given, because a power carrying civil consequences attracts the rules of natural justice unless the statute excludes them, and s.144B embeds rather than excludes them. The assessment order and demand notice were set aside for a fresh reasoned order after hearing.
The faceless order says I filed no reply when I did, and my hearing request was ignored. Is it valid? It was set aside. The final order reproduced the draft order word for word apart from one sentence, recorded that no response had been filed when two replies were on the record, and ignored the requests for adjournment and personal hearing — so it was held non est under s.144B(9) as it then stood. The Court warned that costs would be recovered from the Assessing Officer personally and entered in the service record if it recurred.
The Department says it issued a draft assessment order, but nothing appeared on the portal. Who has to prove service? The Department does. Where the Revenue claimed a draft assessment order had been placed and served but nothing was traceable on the portal, the Gujarat High Court quashed the assessment. Every step of s.144B has to be treated with the same seriousness, because s.144B(9), as it then stood and before its retrospective omission, made a non-compliant assessment non est.
The faceless order made additions but no show cause notice or draft order ever came. What is the order worth? Nothing. Where the final order varies the returned income to the assessee's prejudice and no show cause notice or draft assessment order was served, the assessment is not made in accordance with s.144B and is non est. The Bombay High Court quashed it outright.
You asked for a video hearing after the show cause notice and the order came anyway. Is that fatal? Yes. Once you have responded to a show cause notice under s.144B and asked for a personal hearing, the request must be taken into account, and ordinarily it will not be refused. An order passed without dealing with that request is unsustainable, and the fact that a further remedy exists later in the process does not cure it.
You missed the writ window. Can the Tribunal still strike down an assessment for breach of s.144B? Yes. The Mumbai Bench held an assessment void ab initio because the mandatory procedure under s.144B was not followed, no show cause notice or draft assessment order having been issued, and allowed the appeal. The Commissioner (Appeals) had brushed the procedural ground aside without analysing it, and that was held to be wrong.
Nothing here is written from memory. Every entry was found through a search, and the page for it links to where it was found, so you can check it rather than take our word for it. What has not happened yet is the part that matters most: nobody has read the certified copy of each judgment and signed off the summary against it. Until that is done, each page says Not yet CA-verified, and it means exactly what it says. Read the source before you rely on an entry in a reply to an Assessing Officer or in an appeal.