s.151A — The faceless reassessment scheme

Currently operative

The section is an enabling power only, so everything turns on the notified scheme. The Department's own page for it carries no footnote, names no scheme and does not state the Act that inserted it, so neither the inserting Act nor the notification is given here. What is said below about the scheme is taken from the Department's search index rather than from the section page, and the notification should be read in the Gazette before it is cited in a submission.

Income-tax Act, 1961

s.151A

Income-tax Act, 2025

s.532 (general scheme power)

In force from 1 April 2026, but s.536(2)(c) preserves the 1961 Act for tax years beginning before that date.

In short

Section 151A of the Income-tax Act, 1961 does not itself make anything faceless. It empowers the Central Government to make a scheme, by notification in the Official Gazette, for assessment, reassessment or recomputation under section 147, for the issue of a notice under section 148, for the conducting of enquiries or the issuance of a show-cause notice or the passing of an order under section 148A, and for the sanction for issue of notice under section 151. The scheme is to impart greater efficiency, transparency and accountability by eliminating the interface between the income-tax authority and the assessee to the extent technologically feasible, by optimising the utilisation of resources through economies of scale and functional specialisation, and by introducing a team-based assessment, reassessment, recomputation or issuance or sanction of notice with dynamic jurisdiction. Sub-section (2) lets the Central Government direct that provisions of the Act shall not apply or shall apply with modifications for the purpose of giving effect to the scheme, but carries a proviso that no such direction may be issued after 31 March 2022. Sub-section (3) requires every notification to be laid before each House of Parliament. The reach of the section is what makes it matter: it covers the section 148A stage and the section 151 sanction, not merely the notice, so an objection founded on it is not confined to the notice itself. The section page on the Department's site names no scheme, so the instrument has to be identified and read in the Gazette before any argument is built on it.

What the provision does

Confers the rule-making power behind faceless reassessment and fixes its outer limits: a scheme may cover the section 148A procedure and the section 151 sanction as well as the section 148 notice, the power to disapply or modify other provisions expired on 31 March 2022, and every notification must be laid before Parliament. It does not itself allocate any case to any officer, and it confers no jurisdiction on anybody.

Threshold questions

Who in fact issued the show-cause, the order and the notice, by designation, and whether that officer was acting under the notified scheme or as the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer
What the notified scheme actually says about the step complained of, read from the Gazette text and not from the heading, because the argument is about the words of the instrument and not about the section
Which step is said to have been taken by the wrong authority, the show-cause, the order, the sanction or the notice, and why that matters on these facts, because a defect at one stage does not travel to the others on its own
When the objection was first taken, in the reply to the show-cause, in the appeal, or for the first time in the writ, because jurisdiction is not conferred by participation but a court asked to intervene late will ask why the point was not taken when it could have been
What relief is actually being sought, because a notice held bad for want of jurisdiction may be quashed outright or set aside with liberty to proceed afresh, and on the dates of this file the difference may be the whole value of the point

The recurring disputes.

The Jurisdictional Assessing Officer against the faceless unit

This is the most frequently run jurisdictional challenge to a reassessment notice. The assessee's point is that section 151A lets the scheme cover the issue of the notice and the section 148A procedure, that a scheme has been notified, and that a notice issued by the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer outside it is therefore without jurisdiction. The Revenue's fuller answer is that the scheme has to be read with section 144B, that the expression Assessing Officer is wide enough to include the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer, that section 151A is an enabling provision and not a bar, and that the scheme governs the manner in which a function is performed once allocated rather than creating a new repository of jurisdiction. The High Courts have divided on it and the question has gone further in appeal, so the decision whether to run the point is a decision about the forum as much as about the merits. The decisions are not set out on this page and should be read before the argument is run.

What relief follows, and whether it is worth having

Relief on a jurisdictional objection has run both ways, from quashing the notice outright to setting it aside with liberty to issue a fresh notice where limitation still permits one. The assessee wants the first and says that a notice without jurisdiction is a nullity which cannot be cured by a direction to do it again. The Revenue wants the second and says that a defect in the route by which a function was exercised is not a defect in the power, so the proper course is to remit. Work out which is available on the dates before the objection is run: on a year close to the outer limit in section 149 the point can end the file, and on a year well inside it the point may buy nothing but delay. The same question decides whether the objection is worth pressing against the assessment order as well as the notice.

What the scheme can and cannot displace

Sub-section (2) is the only power to disapply or modify other provisions of the Act for the purposes of the scheme, and it expired on 31 March 2022. Anything in a scheme or a later instrument which operates to disapply a provision of the Act, rather than merely to allocate the function, needs to be traced to a direction issued before that date. The Revenue's answer is that sub-section (2) is engaged only where an instrument disapplies or modifies a provision, that a scheme routing a function to a different officer does neither, and that the proviso bars fresh directions after 31 March 2022 without unsettling anything already validly done. Whether a given clause allocates or disapplies is a question about the words of the instrument, which is why the Gazette text and not the summary has to be read.

Frequently asked.

What does section 151A actually do?

It empowers the Central Government to notify a scheme making reassessment faceless. The scheme may cover assessment, reassessment or recomputation under section 147, the issue of a notice under section 148, the enquiries, show-cause notice and order under section 148A, and the sanction under section 151. The section itself allocates nothing and confers jurisdiction on nobody; everything turns on what the notified scheme says.

Can a reassessment notice issued by the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer be challenged?

It is challenged frequently and the objection is jurisdictional. The argument is that section 151A covers the issue of the notice and the section 148A procedure, so a notice issued outside the notified scheme is without jurisdiction; the Revenue answers that the scheme must be read with section 144B and allocates work rather than displacing the Assessing Officer's statutory jurisdiction. The High Courts have divided and the question has gone further in appeal. Because the objection goes to jurisdiction it is not conferred by participation, but it should be taken in the reply to the show-cause and not raised for the first time in the writ. The authorities are not cited on this page.

If the notice is held to be without jurisdiction, is that the end of the matter?

Not necessarily. Relief has run both ways, from quashing the notice outright to setting it aside with liberty to issue a fresh notice where limitation still permits one. Work out which is available on the dates before the objection is run, because on a year close to the outer limit in section 149 the point can end the file, and on a year well inside it the point may buy nothing but delay.

Which scheme has been notified under section 151A?

The Department's own page for section 151A names no scheme and carries no footnote identifying one, so this page does not state a notification number or date. The Department's search index lists a scheme titled the e-Assessment of Income Escaping Assessment Scheme, 2022, which is the instrument the litigation concerns, but that listing is an index entry rather than the section page, and the notification should be read in the Gazette before it is cited.

Is there a counterpart in the Income-tax Act, 2025?

Not as a provision dealing with reassessment alone. The 2025 Act carries section 532, "Power to frame schemes", a general power under which the Central Government may by notification make a scheme for any of the purposes of the Act, so as to impart greater efficiency, transparency and accountability by eliminating the interface with the assessee or any other person to the extent technologically feasible and by optimising utilisation of the resources. It carries the same power to disapply or modify provisions of the Act for the purpose of giving effect to a scheme; by sub-section (3) it expressly allows a scheme already notified under the Income-tax Act, 1961 with a view to eliminating the interface to be amended or modified; and it requires every notification to be laid before each House of Parliament. Three differences matter. The power is general rather than tied to sections 147 to 151. There is no counterpart to the 31 March 2022 bar on directions. And section 532(1) stops at eliminating the interface and optimising resources: it carries nothing answering to clause (c) of section 151A(1), the team-based working with dynamic jurisdiction, which is the limb on which the jurisdictional challenges to a faceless reassessment notice are built. What sub-section (3) adds in its place is an express power to amend or modify a scheme already notified under the 1961 Act, so an instrument made under the old section can be carried forward rather than remade. Section 273, "Faceless Assessment", is a separate mechanism, resting on the Board specifying areas, persons or cases and on prescribed procedure rather than on a notified scheme.