SC Revives Reassessment Notices Issued by Jurisdictional AOs

Case Details: Income Tax Officer vs. Tej Partap Singh [2026] 185 taxmann.com 1007 (SC)

Judiciary and Counsel Details

Surya Kant | CJI., B.V. Nagarathna & Joymalya Bagchi, JJ.
Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General, N. Venkataraman, Rahjavendra P. Shankar, S. Dwarakanath, Raghavendra P. Shankar, A.S.Gs., V. Chandrashekhara Bharathi, Zoheb Hussain, Bhuvan Kapoor, Karan Lahiri, Ms Shilpi Ohri, Udit Dedhiya, Ms Pallavi Mishra, Mrs. Prerna Dhall, Abhyudey Kabra, Rajat Vaishnaw, Mudit Bansal, S. Vijay Adithiya, Gaurang Bhushan, Yogya Rajpurohit, Mrs. Uma Prasunna Bachu, Sandeep Sapra, Udai Khanna, Praneet Pranav, Padmesh Mishra, Shashank Bajpai, Chitvan Singhal, Shantanu Bhowmick, Ranjeet K. Ranjan, Gautam Barua, Abhaya Nath Das, Ms Monica Goel, Mohd Yasin, Ms Sarita Verma, Ms Shubhangi Pandey, Naresh Jain, Ms Arati Debnath, Rishabh Jain, Mahaveer Jain, Alok Kumar, Ms Kavya, Ankit Daga, Vaibhav Kulkarni, Advs., Sudarshan Lamba, Vinay Garg, Raj Bahadur Yadav, Satish Kumar, Vikash Chandra Shukla, Rameshwar Prasad Goyal, Ms Kheyali Singh, Aniket Deepak Agrawal, AORs and Arijit Prasad, Sr. Adv. for the Petitioner.
Rupender Sinhmar, Samarvir Singh, Kartik Bansal, Mrs. Reeta Dewan Puri, Ms Smriti Puri, Srajan Sinha, Nitin Kumar, Dushyant Nayak, Shivam Jain, Krishan Kant Kumar, Monu Kumar, Chander, Rajasaheb S. Patil, Ms Supriya Wankhede, Sukhbir Hooda, Ms Pushpanjali Singh, Vipul Kumar, Ms Gursimrat Kaur, Manoj Kumar, Saurabh Sharma, Karan Seth, Jaiveer Singh Bali, Nithin K. Raj, Mohd. Amaan Deewan, Gaurave Bhargav, Ms Anshu Gupta, Shubham Gupta, Ms Siddhi Gupta, Satyam Aneja, Aniket Singh, Ms Megha Shaw, Abhisek Das, Amit Mathur, Chandrashekhara Bharathi, Vishnu Sharma A.S., Pratik Shah, Ms Tani Malik, Ms Vidhatri, Sumit Mangal, Ms Radhika Sharma, D. Manmohan, Yashas R.K., Venkatram Reddy Mantur, Percy Pardiwala, Gunjan Kakkad, Raghav Deshpande, Rushabh Tripathi, Madhur Agrawal, Satyajit A. Desai, Sachin Singh, Pratik Kumar Singh, Shashank Upadhyay, Parth Johri, Sanchit Agrahari, Madhur Duggal, Dr. Rakesh Gupta, Somil Aggarwal, Gautam Thacker, S. Sukumaran, Bhupesh Pathak, Mrs. Ruche Anand, Om Sudhir Vidyarthi, Aditya Jain, Yogit Kamat, Dr. Shine P. Sasidhar, Kamal Singh Bisht, V.R. Raman, Ms Aakriti Gupta, Ms Urvi Khanna, J.S. Prakyat, Nishant Thakkar, Hiten Thakkar, Ms Jasmin Amalsadvala, Nikhil Ranjan, Rahul Hakani, Rajesh Ranjan Prasad, Nihar Mankad, A. Raghuram, Ms Devyani Mahra, Poli Naidu Vudamala, Vivek Sarin, Ms Divyanshi Singh, Dhruv Dev Gupta, Ms Nandita Singhal, Satish C. Kaushik, Ms Tamanna Rohilla, Vibhu Tiwari, Saksham Singhal, Ms Priyanka Jain, Samrath Choudhary, Viabhav Kulkarni, Ms Mahima Goud, Ms Mahima Thakur, Bhanu Thakur, Ms Swati Mishra, Amit Sangwan, Bharat Mishra, Ms Sneha Chandna, Ms Shivangi Singh, Ms Vaibhavi Parikh, Pranay Bhardwaj, Ms Pragya Jaiswal, Sholab Arora, Ms Madhumitha Kesavan, Karan Khetani, Ms Sriharshitha Chada, Ram Avtar Sharma, Ms Ananya Kapoor, Salil Kapoor, Ms Soumya Singh, Tarun Chanana, Sumit Lalchandani, Shivam Yadav, Ravi Kumar, Utkarsa Kumar Gupta, Ms Nazuk Singhal, Rajat Khattry, Aman Gupta, Ms Srishti Ghoshal, Ms Divya Jain, Kshitij Kumar, Tadimalla Bhaskar Gowtham, Ms Shambhawi Shiva, Dinesh H. Godara, Amarnath Munjampalli, Ms Daggu Pallavi, S. Siddarth, Devvrat Singh, Ankit Midha, Ms Komal Mundhra, Rishay Raj, Rahul Tyagi, Rohit Gupta, Mohit Singhal, Ms Dhanshri S. Mandhale, Ms Surbhi Sharma, Siddhant Sharma, Shubham Soni, Satyen Sethi, Ms Gargi Sethee, Akshay Singh, Ms Sanjana Jain, Venkata Prasad Pasupuleti, Aayush Agarwala, Gaurav Verma, Kushal Kumar Chauhan, Ms Prapti Shrivastava, Amit Kumar Singh, A. Anisha, Ravi Sawana, Ms Neha Sharma, Ms Neha Choudhary, Ms Nitum Jain, Swastik Mishra, Ms Medha Sinha, L. Badri Narayanan, Vishal Kalra, Anil Kumar, Saumyendra Singh Tomar, Ms Suvandna Kalra, Inder Paul Bansal, Vivek Bansal, Sanjay Goyal, Vamsikrishna Thota, Srikanth Varma Mudunuru, Aditya Dassaur, Syed Ahmed Saud, Mohd. Parvez Dabas, Daanish Ahmed Syed, Uzmi Jameel Husain, Aqib Baig, Mohd. Shahib, Mohd. Shakim, Seemab Qayyum, Mohammad Aadil Khan, Kislay Pandey, Ankur Khurana, Arnav Kumar, Ms Manya Gupta, Keshav Mittal, Ms Priya Agarwal, Ms Shardha Zutshi, Siddharth Anil Khanna, Ritik Arora, Shivam Mishra, Ms Gulshan Jahan, Sewa Sangh, Shashank Manish, Ms Pragati Singh, B. Veera Swamy Raju, Mohammad Mukhairuddin, Akarsh Garg, Ms Ritika Aggarwal, Ms Abhipsa Anamika, Ms Uditie Aggarwal, Saksham Garg, A.V.A. Siva Kartikeya, Nikhil Swami, Ms Divya Swami, Mahesh Agarwal, Rishi Agrawala, Ankur Saigal, Alok Yadav, Anshuman Srivastava, Abhinabh Garg, Ms Ameesha Malhotra, Ms Sayaree Basu Mallik, Ms Madhur Agarwal, Rachit Thakur, Ms Jineshi Thakur, Ms Niharika Singh, Aneesh Vempati, Partik, Rohit Dhamija, Puneet Dewan, Dharmesh Shah, Kapil Hirani, Dharan Gandhi, Nishit Gandhi, Devendra Jain, Kumar Kale, Tanzil Padvekar, Nalin Bajaj, Dhaval Shah, Kushagra Gehlot, Amar Gahlot, Prashant, Pravin Gambhir, Rakesh Agarwal, Subham Kumar, Priyanshu, Ms Krati Agrawal, D. Bharat Kumar, Aman Shukla, Ms Yatika Gupta, Bhoumik Nayyar, Ms Manasvi Reddy Jakka, M. Chndrakanth Reddy, Thandra Sai Yeshwanth Goud, Mahipal, Jasdeep Singh Dhillon, Jas Sanghavi, Ms Aasavari Kadam, Mihir Mehta, Suyog Bhave, Ms R.K. Batra, Abhay Mann, Ms Amanat Kaur Chahal, Prabhat Chaurasia, Daleep Singh, Anirudh Jamwal, Aditya Bajaj, Ms Kenisha Savla, Ms Prerna Priyadarshini, Syed Faraz Alam, Atharva Gaur, Ms Ayesha Choudhary, Pramothesh Mukherjee, Ved Jain, Nischay Kantoor, Sparsh Kapoor, Vivek Punjabi, Jasmeet Singh, Ms Rusheet Saluja, Saif Ali, Pushpendra Singh Bhadoriya, Vijay Sharma, Pranav Menon, Saurav, Ms Rutuja N. Pawar, Saurabh Upadhyay, Ms Hardikaa Kalia, Manish Chaurasia, Ms Hetal Laghave, Ms Sneha More, Pranaya Ramesh, Adhyatamik Khanna, Ms Saloni Sankhe, Ms Khushi Chhetri, Piyush Garg, Sushant Harit, Sandeep Goel, Abhishek Garg, Mahesh Gupta, Basa Mithun Shashank, Tanmay Sadh, Devaang Savla, Ved P. Singh, Ms Ankita Gupta, Ms Shreya Kasera, M. Ramasamy, Mrs. K. Balambihai, Ms Pooja Lakshmi, Prasad Lotikar, Ankur Savadikar, Suyash Gadre, Ms Srija Singh, Nishant Sharma, Kartik Sharma, Vachan Budke, Piyush Bhardwaj, Shivam Sengupta, Bharat Raichandani, Deepak Kumar Khokhar, Mahesh Raichandani, Ms Komal Mittal, Maasir Javed, Rahul Jain, Rahul Sharma, Dr. Saurab Kapoor, Mrs. Vanita Bhargava, Sanjay Sanghvi, Ajay Bhargava, Atul S. Mathur, Prabal Mehrotra, Vishal Shrivastava, Sarvapriya Makkar, Ms Tijil Thakur, Ms Shagun Mishra, Vikrant Kackria, S.K. Verma, Shailesh Sharma, Ms Nandita Sharma, Ms Alka Goyal, Khubaib Shakeel, Pradyoth Tadikonda, Shravan Yammanur, Ms Pankhuri Shrivastava, Abhishek Bhoot, Alekshendra Sharma, Deepankar Kumar, Ms Shradha Narayan, Ms Mallika Agarwal, Mohit Soni, Advs., Naman Tandon, P.N. Puri, Ayush Anand, Ms Alpana Sharma, Kaustubh Shukla, Ms Shalu Sharma, Niraj Gupta, Aayushmaan Vatsyayana, Saurabh Agrawal, D. Abhinav Rao, K.R. Sasiprabhu, Mayank Pandey, Ms Aditi Anil Dani, Kunal Cheema, Ms Anagha S. Desai, Ambhoj Kumar Sinha, Anand Sukumar, Parminder Singh Bhullar, Abhijit Sengupta, Ms Christi Jain, Naveen Nagarjuna, Shibu Devasia Olickal, Pawanshree Agrawal, Ranjan Nikhil Dharnidhar, Manish Paliwal, Gunnam Venkateswara Rao, Siddharth Jain, Aakarshan Aditya, Kunal Verma, Divyesh Pratap Singh, Ms Anushree Prashit Kapadia, Ms Madhulika Upadhyay, Nagarkatti Kartik Uday, M.P. Srivignesh, Niteen Kumar Sinha, Praveen Swarup, Ivan, Siddhartha Iyer, Ravi Raghunath, Nikhil Jain, Ram Naresh Yadav, Samrat Krishnarao Shinde, Sandeep Singh, Anand Dilip Landge, Rajiv Tyagi, Abhishek Gautam, Artatrana Panda, Y. Raja Gopala Rao, Pushkar Karni Sinha, Shashank Singh, Rahul Gupta, Ms Charanya Lakshmikumaran, Nirmal Goenka, Anil Kumar Gautam, Prateek K. Chadha, Ms Devina Sehgal, Ms priyanjali Singh, Shakil Ahmad Syed, Mudit Gupta, Pulkit Prakash, Ashok Mathur, Tushar Giri, Ms Nidhi Sahay, Kaushik Choudhury, Mrs. Prabha Swami, Prabhat Kumar Rai, E.C. Agrawala, Rohit Anil Rathi, Naveen Hegde, Bharat Bhushan, Rajat Mittal, Gopal Jha, Kush Chaturvedi, Subodh S. Patil, Ms Shweta Bhagchandani, Dhananjay Garg, Bhushan Mahendra Oza, Vikas Mehta, Anurag, Ms Akanksha Mehra, Kushagra Pandey, Sahil Tagotra, Aniruddha Deshmukh, B. Karunakaran, Sandeep Sudhakar Deshmukh, Abhinav Agrawal, Aneesh Mittal, Ms Qurratulain, Deepak Goel, Manish K. Bishnoi, Ms Mitali Chauhan, Ms Neelam Sharma, Anantha Narayana M.G., Ms Anubha Agrawal, Divyanshu Sahay, Akshay Sahay, AORs, Salil Dev Singh Bali, J.D. Mistri, S. Ganesh, Puneet Jain, Sandeep Goyal, T. Suryanaryan, Tushar Hemani, Sanjay Bansal, V. Sridharan, Ms Radhika Suri, Balbir Singh, Kavin Gulati, Vikram Pooserla and Prakash Shah, Sr. Advs. for the Respondent.

Facts of the Case

A large batch of reassessment matters arose under the Income-tax Act, 1961, after the Finance Act, 2021, overhauled Sections 147 to 151 with effect from 01.04.2021. Subsequently, on 29.03.2022, the CBDT notified the e-Assessment of Income Escaping Assessment Scheme, 2022 under Section 151A, providing that reassessment under Section 147 and issuance of notice under Section 148 would be carried out through automated allocation and in a faceless manner.

This gave rise to a dispute on whether, after this Scheme, the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer (JAO) or the National Faceless Assessment Centre/Faceless Units (NFAC) had authority to act at the pre-notice and notice stages under Sections 148A and 148.

In several cases, JAOs issued orders under Section 148A(d) and consequential notices under Section 148 without routing them through the faceless mechanism. Multiple writ petitions were filed before various High Courts. Divergent views emerged; some High Courts held that the JAO and NFAC had concurrent jurisdiction and that the Scheme did not displace the JAO, others quashed the notices and proceedings on the ground that they were not issued through the faceless mechanism, thereby rendering the subsequent reassessment steps invalid.

During the pendency of appeals arising from these judgments, Parliament enacted the Finance Act, 2026 (effective 01.04.2026), inserting Section 147A into the Act with retrospective effect from 01.04.2021 to clarify that the Assessing Officer, for purposes of Sections 148 and 148A, shall mean an Assessing Officer other than the NFAC or any assessment unit referred to in Section 144B(3).

Aggrieved-assessee filed the instant writ petition contending that the High Court quashed the reassessment notice only on the ground that it was not issued by the National Faceless Assessment Centre (NFAC) and the very foundation of that view now stands altered by the amending legislation, the impugned judgment in favour of the assessee should be set aside, and the matter should be remitted to the High Court for fresh consideration.

Supreme Court Held

The Hon’ble Supreme Court had to decide whether to quash the reassessment notices on the ground that the Jurisdictional Assessing Officers (JAOs) lacked competence to initiate such proceedings or not.

The Supreme Court has set aside the orders of various High Courts holding that the JAOs have no jurisdiction to issue notices for reassessment under Section 148A(d) and Section 148, and that such notices should be issued by the NFAC. The Apex Court held that the Parliament, from the outset, intended that while notices could be issued by either the Jurisdictional AO or the Faceless AOs, the subsequent quasi-judicial adjudication of such notices was to be undertaken by the FAOs.

The power to enact retrospective amendments is well settled in law, and fresh notices will now be issued to assessees in accordance with the clarified position, so that pending reassessment proceedings may be concluded in accordance with the law.

It is not necessary for the Supreme Court to examine the merits of the rival submissions concerning the correctness of the impugned judgments or the scope of the competing precedents at this juncture. The High Courts have primarily quashed the reassessment notices on the ground that the Jurisdictional AOs lacked competence to initiate such proceedings, and the very foundation of that view now stands altered by the amending legislation.

Thus, the impugned judgments in favour of the assessee were set aside on this limited ground. The matter was remitted to the respective High Courts for fresh consideration. The assessee was granted liberty to amend their writ petitions, if so advised, within a period of four weeks from the date of uploading of this order, so as to enable them to challenge Section 147A of the IT Act, as introduced by Act No. 4 of 2026, or to any other connected or consequential provision.

List of Cases Reviewed

Hexaware Technologies Ltd. vs. Assistant Commissioner of Income-tax [2024] 162 taxmann.com 225 (Bombay)/[2024] 464 ITR 430 (Bombay) [Para 22] Partly set aside
Jasjit Singh vs. Union of India [2024] 165 taxmann.com 114 (Punjab & Haryana)/[2024] 300 Taxman 437 (Punjab & Haryana)/[2024] 467 ITR 52 (Punjab & Haryana)
Order dated 08-04-2025 in CWP No. 10149/2025 passed by the High Court of Punjab & Haryana [Para 22] set aside

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