Section 257 of the Income-tax Act, 2025

Section 257 — Proceedings before income-tax authorities to be judicial proceedings. Successor to s.136 of the 1961 Act.

Where this section sits

Section 257 is in Chapter XIV — Tax Administration, which runs from section 236 to section 261.

What this section does

Sub-section (1) deems any proceeding under the Act before an income-tax authority to be a judicial proceeding within the meaning of sections 229 and 267, and for the purposes of section 233, of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. Sub-section (2) deems every income-tax authority to be a Civil Court for the purposes of section 215 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, but expressly not for the purposes of Chapter xxviii of that Sanhita.

Why it is there

Statements made and documents produced before an income-tax authority need the same protection against falsehood as those made before a court, and the officer needs the standing to set the criminal process in motion. The section supplies both by borrowing named provisions of the general criminal law, and it stops there — the closing words of sub-section (2) withhold the Civil Court fiction for Chapter xxviii of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, so the deeming does not become a general elevation of an income-tax authority into a court.

Who it applies to

Any person appearing, giving evidence, making a statement or producing documents in a proceeding before an income-tax authority
Every income-tax authority conducting such a proceeding

What this means in practice

Both limbs are limited by the provisions they name, and the limitation is the point. Sub-section (1) covers "any proceeding under this Act before an income-tax authority" — not only assessment, but any proceeding — yet it makes it a judicial proceeding only within the meaning of the two Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections named and for the purposes of the third. Sub-section (2) makes the authority a Civil Court only for the purpose of the single Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita section named, and carves Chapter xxviii of that Sanhita out expressly. Nothing here turns an income-tax authority into a court for any other purpose.

An example

Illustrative only, and invented for this page. The figures are chosen to show the rule biting, not taken from any real matter.

An individual is examined and makes a statement in the course of a proceeding before an Assessing Officer. Because sub-section (1) deems that proceeding a judicial proceeding within the meaning of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita provisions it names, what is said there carries the consequences those provisions attach; and because sub-section (2) deems the authority a Civil Court for the single Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita provision named, the officer may act under it. Neither limb gives the authority the position of a Civil Court for the purposes of Chapter xxviii of that Sanhita, which the section excludes in terms.

Where you meet this section

You meet it whenever you are summoned or examined before an income-tax authority, and again in any prosecution arising out of a statement made or a document produced in that proceeding.

The words themselves

Any proceeding under this Act before an income-tax authority shall be deemed to be a judicial proceeding within the meaning of sections 229 and 267 and for the purposes of section 233 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (45 of 2023).

Section 257(1), Income-tax Act, 2025.

but not for the purposes of Chapter XXVIII of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (46 of 2023)

Section 257(2), Income-tax Act, 2025.

What people get wrong

Reading sub-section (2) as making an income-tax authority a Civil Court for all purposes. It is confined to section 215 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 and expressly excludes Chapter xxviii of it.
Confining sub-section (1) to assessment proceedings. It covers any proceeding under this Act before an income-tax authority.
Treating the deeming as making the authority a court for appeals, contempt or procedure generally. It operates only within the meaning of, and for the purposes of, the provisions it names.

What this replaced

The correspondence is the Income Tax Department’s own, from its comparison utility for the 1961 and 2025 Acts. A renumbering is the easy half; whether the words changed is the half that decides cases.

136 - Proceedings before income-tax authorities to be judicial proceedings

See the full 1961 to 2025 concordance.

Case law carried across

Read this before you rely on it. Every decision below was decided under the Income-tax Act, 1961. It appears here because it is tagged to a 1961 provision that the department’s own mapping carries to section 257. That is an inference we have drawn, not a holding on the new section: where the words changed in the move, the reasoning may not survive. Treat this as the place to start looking, not as authority on the 2025 Act.

Sahara India (Firm) v CIT Supreme CourtCuts both waystagged s.136
The AO ordered a special audit of my books without hearing me first. Is that direction valid?

What this page does not tell you. It does not reproduce the section. Everything above was written from the section’s own text as the Income Tax Department publishes it — the text is here, and nothing here is advice on your facts. Where a figure matters, read the sub-section it comes from.