Sub-section (1) lets the Board, or any other income-tax authority specified by it by an order in this behalf, furnish or cause to be furnished information received or obtained by any income-tax authority in the performance of its functions under this Act. It may go to two classes of recipient: under clause (a), any officer, authority or body performing functions under any law relating to the imposition of any tax, duty or cess, or dealings in foreign exchange as defined in section 2(n) of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999; and under clause (b), such officer, authority or body performing functions under any other law as the Central Government, being of the opinion that it is necessary in the public interest, may specify by notification. What may be furnished is such information as, in the opinion of the Board or other income-tax authority, is necessary to enable the recipient to perform his or its functions under that law.
Sub-section (2) provides a route for a private person. The Principal Chief Commissioner, Chief Commissioner, Principal Commissioner or Commissioner may furnish information relating to an assessee, received or obtained by any income-tax authority in the performance of his functions, on an application made by that person in the prescribed form, and on being satisfied that it is in the public interest to do so. Clause (b) makes the authority's decision final and not open to question in any court of law.
Sub-section (3) overrides sub-sections (1) and (2) and any other law in force: the Central Government may, having regard to practices and usages, customary or any other relevant factors, direct by notification that no information or document shall be furnished or produced by a public servant in respect of such matters relating to such class of assessees, except to authorities specified in that notification.
Why it is there
Information given to the Department under compulsion needs both a controlled outlet and a guard. Sub-section (1) supplies the outlet for official use, measured by what the recipient needs to do his own job. Sub-section (2) opens a narrow door for the public, gated by a public interest satisfaction and closed to judicial review. Sub-section (3) is the guard, allowing whole classes of assessee or subject matter to be sealed off by notification.
Who it applies to
The Board, and any other income-tax authority specified by it by an order in this behalf
An officer, authority or body under a law relating to any tax, duty or cess, or dealings in foreign exchange as defined in section 2(n) of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999, or one specified by notification under any other law
A person applying under sub-section (2), and the Principal Chief Commissioner, Chief Commissioner, Principal Commissioner or Commissioner deciding that application
An assessee whose information may be furnished, and a public servant barred from furnishing it by a notification under sub-section (3)
What this means in practice
Neither route is a right to information. Sub-section (1) is permissive and bounded twice over — by the recipient being one of the two described classes, and by the information being, in that authority's opinion, necessary for the recipient's functions under his own law. Sub-section (2) is narrower still: it needs an application in the prescribed form and a public interest satisfaction, and clause (b) makes the decision final and not open to challenge in any court, so a refusal cannot ordinarily be tested on its merits. Sub-section (3) sits above both and works by notification rather than case by case: where a class of assessees or a subject matter has been notified, no public servant may furnish the information at all except to the authorities named there.
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 authority administering an indirect tax law asks for an assessee's turnover figures to complete its own proceedings. The Board, or an income-tax authority it has specified by order, may furnish them under sub-section (1)(a), because that authority performs functions under a law relating to the imposition of a tax and the information is, in the Board's opinion, necessary for those functions. A private party wanting the same figures must instead apply under sub-section (2) in the prescribed form, and the Commissioner may furnish them only if satisfied that it is in the public interest; if he declines, clause (b) makes that decision final and not open to question in a court.
Where you meet this section
Chiefly on the receiving end — as an assessee whose information reaches another regulator, or as an applicant filing the prescribed form under sub-section (2) to the Principal Chief Commissioner, Chief Commissioner, Principal Commissioner or Commissioner. The section names no form number.
The words themselves
as may, in the opinion of the Board or other income-tax authority, be necessary for the purpose of enabling the officer, authority or body, to perform his or its functions under that law
Section 258(1), Income-tax Act, 2025.
shall be final and shall not be called in question in any court of law
Section 258(2)(b), Income-tax Act, 2025.
What people get wrong
Treating sub-section (2) as a right to obtain information. It requires an application in the prescribed form and a public interest satisfaction, and the authority may furnish, not must.
Expecting to challenge a refusal under sub-section (2). Clause (b) makes the decision final and not liable to be called in question in any court of law.
Reading sub-section (1)(b) as covering any authority under any law. It reaches only a body specified by notification, where the Central Government considers it necessary in the public interest.
Overlooking the notification power. Sub-section (3) overrides sub-sections (1) and (2) and any other law.
Assuming any officer of the Department can share information under sub-section (1). It is the Board, or an income-tax authority specified by it by an order in this behalf.
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.
138 - Disclosure of information respecting assessees
Rules of the Income-tax Rules, 2026 that work section 258. Where the rule’s own heading names the section we say so; the rest are marked on reading the rule, which is our derivation and not the department’s. A rule that serves the section silently and that we have missed will not appear here.
Rule 155 — Disclosure of information related to assessees under section 258(2)
A notification is made under a power the Act gives and, within that power, is law. These too were made under the 1961 Act and are placed here by the department’s concordance.
Notification: 32 Date of Issue: 18/4/2013 — Section 138 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 - Disclosure of Information Respecting Assessees to Specified Officer, Authority or Body P 2013-04-18
Notification No. 48 — Section 138(1)(A)(II) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 - Disclosure of Information Respecting Assessees to Specified Officer, Authority 2009-06-16
Notification No. 104 — Home Secretary-cum-Chief Vigilance Officer and Superintendent of Police or Senior Superintendent of Police-cum-Incharge Vigilance 2004-03-18
Notification No. 137 — No public servant shall produce before any person or authority any such document or record or any information or computerised data 2003-05-23
Notification No. 9 — A notification under section 138 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 2003-01-07
Notification No. 731(E) — A notification under section 138 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 2000-07-28
Notification No. 1375 — Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction specified under section 138 1993-05-28
Notification No. 2977 — All the officers of and above the rank of Superintendent of Police serving in the State Vigilance Bureau specified under section 1 1992-11-16
Notification No. 1129 — All the officers of and above the rank of Director (Vigilance) of the State Vigilance Organisation specified under section 138 1991-03-20
Notification No. 2582 — For the purposes of the said sub-clause every officer of or above the rank of Superintendent of Police of Madya Pradesh Special Po 1987-06-30
Notification No. 2973 — Superintendent of Police specified under section 138 1987-06-17
Notification No. 259 — Karnataka State Vigilance Commission specified under section 138 1983-12-23
Notification No. 258 — All Officers of and above the rank of Superintendent of Police of the Special Police Establishment specified under section 138 1983-12-09
Notification No. 186 — All class I officers of the Reserve Bank of India specified under section 138 1983-12-09
Notification No. 927 — For the purposes of the said clause specified under section 138 1981-11-19
Notification No. 3030 — For the purposes of the said sub-clause specified under section 138 1980-09-20
Notification No. 4051 — For the purpose of the said sub-clause specified under section 138 1976-06-29
Notification No. 2749 — For the purpose of the said sub-clause specified under section 138 1976-06-29
Notification No. 4259 — For the purposes of the said sub-clause specified under section 138 1975-08-23
Notification No. 4747 — For the purposes of the said sub-clause specified under section 138 1975-08-08
Notification No. 4165 — For the purposes of the said sub-clause specified under section 138 1975-08-08
Notification No. 3371 — Commissioners for Departmental Enquiries who have been appointed as the Inquiring Authority mentioned in clause (b) of section 3 o 1973-10-30
Notification No. 782 — Commission of Inquiry on Large Industrial Houses specified under section 138 1973-01-23
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.
