The Bombay High Court issued notice to the Government on the plea of tax consultants challenging the constitutional validity of the ‘Faceless Appeal Scheme’.
The government had launched faceless appeals to eliminate the human interface from the first appellate system in the income tax from last year. Under the faceless assessment system, a taxpayer or an assessee is not required to visit an Income Tax department office or meet a department official for income tax-related businesses.
The writ petition has been filed by the Chamber of Tax Consultants, through its president Ketan L Vajani and argued through senior advocates Arvind Datar and Saurabh Soparkar.
As per petitioners, e-proceeding and faceless proceedings may turn out to be ‘detrimental’ in the case of assessments, and using a faceless system even in appellate proceedings will not inspire confidence in the taxpayers.
Senior advocates Arvind Datar and Saurabh Soparkar has claimed that since the opportunity for a personal hearing is not given at the first appellate stage, the first time the appellant or the representative will be heard in person will be directly before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, which is the last fact-finding authority, and therefore a challenge to the system.
The division bench of Justice K R Shriram and Justice Abhay Ahuja while posting the matter on September 6, 2021 said that since this matter involves serious questions of law and challenge to the constitutional validity of certain amendments, we intend to finally dispose of the writ petition at the admission stage itself. Notice be given to the Attorney General for India.
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