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The Tax Publishers Income Tax--Service of Notice Dedicated e-mail Address for Service of Notices by Income Tax Department Sameer Bhatia Service of notice in the present times acquire grave proportions with the assessee as tendency to shift the onus of having wrongly served the assessee is something which definitely goes to the root of the matter concerned. The learned author in his detailed write-up discusses at length the proposition as to whether the possibility of service of notice electronically on the assessee by taking recourse to the residuary ground of service enunciated under sub-clause (vi) of Explanation (t) appended to section 144B of the Income Tax Act is legitimate and does not offend the legislative intent in this regard. Whether on the basis of an assertion put forth by the revenue to the extent that residuary ground of service is an alternative to the other grounds mentioned under Explanation (t), assessee can be estopped from challenging and contesting the same in the larger interest of justice, equity and fair-play. 1. Prologue Service of notice in the present times acquire grave proportions with the assessee as tendency to shift the onus of having wrongly served the assessee is something which definitely goes to the root of the matter concerned. With the passage of time, electronic servicing of notices have replaced its erstwhile counterpart of service being effected through the procedure embedded in the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (Act No.5 of 1908). Many a times it is evident and apparent that notices were served physically on the assessee by taking recourse to alternative medium of serving the assessees which later on came to be defeated for not following the prescribed order for effecting service meaning thereby taking recourse to the residuary measure in-stead of taking shield of the general order prescribed for effecting service. Now with the advent of time and in the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI), it becomes more imperative to scan through the electronic mechanism of servicing the assessee under the Income Tax Act, 1961. 2. Whether assessee is bound to intimate a dedicated email address for service In a faceless regime of assessment that is perhaps the talk of the town wherein an assessee's financial antecedents in respect of a particular year gets inspected, analysed and examined by officials unknown to the assessee venturing through Assessment Unit (AU), Technical Unit (TU), Verification Unit (VU) and Review Unit RU), the onus of servicing the assessee though within the time prescribed acquire greater sense of responsibility and accountability. Service of notices unlike the summons under the Code of Civil Procedure 1908 (Act No.5 of 1908) in context of the Income Tax Act, 1961 cast a heavy burden upon the assessee with respect to assumption of jurisdiction by the official concerned with the assessee being provided a right to challenge the same within the parameters prescribed under the law itself. Relevant Rule No.127 has since been inserted in the Income Tax Rules, 1962 by the IT (Eighteenth Amendment) Rules, 2015 with effect from 02nd January, 2015 to provide for Service of notice, summons, requisition, order and other communication. Rule 127 has been made applicable even to service of notices in an electronic fashion i.e. through electronic email or electronic email message at which any communication from the department can be released to the assessee for better compliance. Rule 127 of the Income Tax Rules, 1962 provides as under:- SUBSCRIBE FOR FULL CONTENT

The Tax Publishers

Income Tax--Service of Notice

Dedicated e-mail Address for Service of Notices by Income Tax Department

Sameer Bhatia

Service of notice in the present times acquire grave proportions with the assessee as tendency to shift the onus of having wrongly served the assessee is something which definitely goes to the root of the matter concerned. The learned author in his detailed write-up discusses at length the proposition as to whether the possibility of service of notice electronically on the assessee by taking recourse to the residuary ground of service enunciated under sub-clause (vi) of Explanation (t) appended to section 144B of the Income Tax Act is legitimate and does not offend the legislative intent in this regard. Whether on the basis of an assertion put forth by the revenue to the extent that residuary ground of service is an alternative to the other grounds mentioned under Explanation (t), assessee can be estopped from challenging and contesting the same in the larger interest of justice, equity and fair-play.

1. Prologue

Service of notice in the present times acquire grave proportions with the assessee as tendency to shift the onus of having wrongly served the assessee is something which definitely goes to the root of the matter concerned. With the passage of time, electronic servicing of notices have replaced its erstwhile counterpart of service being effected through the procedure embedded in the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (Act No.5 of 1908). Many a times it is evident and apparent that notices were served physically on the assessee by taking recourse to alternative medium of serving the assessees which later on came to be defeated for not following the prescribed order for effecting service meaning thereby taking recourse to the residuary measure in-stead of taking shield of the general order prescribed for effecting service. Now with the advent of time and in the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI), it becomes more imperative to scan through the electronic mechanism of servicing the assessee under the Income Tax Act, 1961.

2. Whether assessee is bound to intimate a dedicated email address for service

In a faceless regime of assessment that is perhaps the talk of the town wherein an assessee's financial antecedents in respect of a particular year gets inspected, analysed and examined by officials unknown to the assessee venturing through Assessment Unit (AU), Technical Unit (TU), Verification Unit (VU) and Review Unit RU), the onus of servicing the assessee though within the time prescribed acquire greater sense of responsibility and accountability. Service of notices unlike the summons under the Code of Civil Procedure 1908 (Act No.5 of 1908) in context of the Income Tax Act, 1961 cast a heavy burden upon the assessee with respect to assumption of jurisdiction by the official concerned with the assessee being provided a right to challenge the same within the parameters prescribed under the law itself. Relevant Rule No.127 has since been inserted in the Income Tax Rules, 1962 by the IT (Eighteenth Amendment) Rules, 2015 with effect from 02nd January, 2015 to provide for Service of notice, summons, requisition, order and other communication. Rule 127 has been made applicable even to service of notices in an electronic fashion i.e. through electronic email or electronic email message at which any communication from the department can be released to the assessee for better compliance. Rule 127 of the Income Tax Rules, 1962 provides as under:-