The Supreme Court will hear on November 7 a bunch of appeals filed by Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) challenging the orders of the income tax department to transfer their tax assessment for the year 2018-19 from the faceless assessment to the central circle.

A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti adjourned the matter after a request was made on behalf of solicitor general Tushar Mehta who was not available for the hearing on Tuesday. Advocate Zoheb Hossain made a request on behalf of SG to have the matter heard in the last week commencing October 30 but the same was opposed by senior advocate Arvind Datar appearing for the Gandhis.

As the matter was getting adjourned, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi appearing for the AAP requested the court to defer the re-assessment orders pending against his client till the next date. He said, “They are hotfooting the assessment. Let it be deferred for two weeks.”

The court asked Hossain if there was any need to issue interim orders as it apprehended that passing of fresh assessment orders would render the appeals pending before it infructuous.

Hossain pointed out that the AAP has challenged the re-assessment order on technical grounds before the Delhi high court, which has asked them to cooperate with the department. Moreover, he pointed out that the limitation against the assessment orders is to end only in March next year. Considering this submission, the bench said, “There is time. We are not passing any interim order,” and posted the matter for hearing on November 7.

The nine appeals pending before the top court were filed by three individuals of the Gandhi family, five trusts linked to them, and another by AAP after their challenge against transfer from faceless assessment was rejected by the Delhi high court in May this year.

The faceless assessment scheme was introduced in 2019 and involves no physical contact between the assessing officer and the taxpayer. The assessment is randomly done by machines using artificial intelligence, with reduced discretion or no human interface involving the IT department.

The HC had rejected the nine petitions by holding that they had no vested right to be assessed through the faceless assessment scheme. The trusts before the court were Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Trust, Jawahar Bhawan Trust, Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust and Young Indian.

The Gandhis had submitted before the HC that only in a rare case does an assessment go out of the faceless assessment. Even in such an eventuality, the case goes to the assessment officer of the circle concerned as any transfer to the central circle is confined to search cases.

Datar had submitted earlier this month that the decision of the principal commissioner of Income Tax in 2021 referring the assessment to the central circle wrongly treated them along with fugitive arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari. He told the court that the Gandhis had nothing to do with Sanjay Bhandari or his group. Incidentally, Bhandari has been allegedly linked with Robert Vadra, the husband of Priyanka Gandhi, over a London flat. However, Vadra has denied any business links with Bhandari.