PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to look at the problem of fault tolerant control (FTC) for discrete time nonlinear system described by Interval Type-2 Takagi–Sugeno (IT2 TS) fuzzy model subjected to stochastic noise and actuator faults.Design/methodology/approachAn IT2 fuzzy augmented state observer is first developed to estimate simultaneously the system states and the actuator faults since this estimation is required for the design of the FTC control law. Furthermore, based on the information of the states and the faults estimate, an IT2 fuzzy state feedback controller is conceived to compensate for the faults effect and to ensure a good tracking performance between the healthy system and the faulty one. Sufficient conditions for the existence of the IT2 fuzzy controller and the IT2 fuzzy observer are given in terms of linear matrix inequalities which can be solved using a two-step computing procedure.FindingsThe paper opted for simulation results which are applied to the three-tank system. These results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed FTC strategy.Originality/valueIn this paper, the problem of active FTC design for noisy and faulty nonlinear system represented by IT2 TS fuzzy model is treated. The developed IT2 fuzzy fault tolerant controller is designed such that it can guarantee the stability of the closed-loop system. Moreover, the proposed controller allows to accommodate for faults, presents a satisfactory state tracking performance and outperforms the traditional type-1 fuzzy fault tolerant controller.