Section 239 — Instructions to subordinate authorities. Successor to s.119 of the 1961 Act.
Section 239 is in Chapter XIV — Tax Administration, which runs from section 236 to section 261.
Sub-section (1) empowers the Board to issue such orders, instructions and directions to other income-tax authorities as it considers fit for the proper administration of the Act, and obliges those authorities and all other persons employed in the execution of the Act to observe and follow them.
Sub-section (2) sets two limits: no order may require an income-tax authority to make a particular assessment or dispose of a particular case in a particular manner, and none may interfere with the discretion of the Joint Commissioner (Appeals) or Commissioner (Appeals) in his appellate functions.
Sub-section (3) adds three specific powers. Clause (a) allows the Board, for the proper and efficient management of assessment and collection of revenue, to issue general or special orders for any class of incomes or class of cases — whether by way of relaxation of sections 263, 270, 271, 279, 280, 287, 288, 298, 398(3), 406, 407, 408, 423, 424, 425, 427, 428, 439, 448, 449 or otherwise — setting out directions or instructions, not being prejudicial to assessees, on the guidelines, principles or procedures to be followed in assessment, collection or the initiation of penalty proceedings, and to publish and circulate such an order in the prescribed manner in the public interest. Clause (b) allows the Board, for avoiding genuine hardship, to authorise any income-tax authority other than a Joint Commissioner (Appeals) or Commissioner (Appeals) to admit an application or claim for exemption, deduction, refund or other relief after the period specified in the Act has expired, and deal with it on merits. Clause (c) allows the Board, again for avoiding genuine hardship and by general or special order for reasons specified, to relax any requirement in Chapter IV or VIII where the assessee failed to comply in claiming a deduction, on two conditions: the default was due to circumstances beyond his control, and he complied before completion of the assessment for the tax year in which the deduction is claimed.
Sub-section (4) requires every order under sub-section (3)(c) to be laid before each House of Parliament.
A tax administration of this size needs a single voice on procedure, and sub-section (1) supplies it while binding the officers rather than the assessee. Sub-section (2) keeps administrative direction out of the quasi-judicial function. Sub-section (3) is the relief valve: the Act's own deadlines and conditions would otherwise defeat claims good on merits.
Board orders bind the officers and those employed in executing the Act, not the assessee, and sub-section (3)(a)(i) confines them to directions not prejudicial to assessees. Sub-section (2) is what an assessee relies on where an assessment reads as though dictated, and it puts appeals expressly out of reach. The two relief clauses do different jobs: sub-section (3)(b) admits a claim made after the period expired and cannot be routed through an appellate authority, while sub-section (3)(c) excuses non-compliance with a Chapter IV or VIII requirement and is unavailable unless that requirement was in fact met before the assessment was completed.
An assessee misses the period for making a refund claim because of circumstances outside his control. Under sub-section (3)(b) the Board may authorise an income-tax authority — but not a Joint Commissioner (Appeals) or Commissioner (Appeals) — to admit the belated claim and decide it on merits. If instead a Chapter VIII deduction was denied only because a prescribed requirement was not met in time, sub-section (3)(c) allows relaxation, but only if the default was beyond his control and the requirement was complied with before the assessment for that year was completed.
This is the power behind the Board circulars and condonation orders a taxpayer cites. An application to condone delay in a refund or deduction claim is made under sub-section (3)(b); a circular relied on in assessment or appeal is issued under sub-section (1) or (3)(a); and sub-section (2) is invoked where an order appears to have been directed from above.
require any income-tax authority to make a particular assessment or to dispose of a particular case in a particular manner
the default in complying with such requirement was due to circumstances beyond the control of the assessee
See the full 1961 to 2025 concordance.
All of them are in the Rules 2026 index.
See every circular and notification on this section, or the circulars index.
See every circular and notification on this section, or the notifications index.