Section 259 — Power to call for information by prescribed income-tax authority. Successor to s.133C of the 1961 Act.
Section 259 is in Chapter XIV — Tax Administration, which runs from section 236 to section 261.
Sub-section (1) empowers a prescribed income-tax authority, for the purpose of verifying information already in its possession, to issue a notice requiring any person to furnish information useful for or relevant to any inquiry or proceeding under the Act, in the form and manner and within the time specified in the notice itself. Sub-section (2) allows that authority to process and utilise the information and documents received in accordance with the scheme notified under section 260. Sub-section (3) gives "proceeding" the meaning assigned to it in section 253.
It gives a designated authority a standing power to verify information it already holds by going directly to any person who can furnish it, without needing an assessment or other proceeding to be pending against that person. Routing the processing through the section 260 scheme keeps the use of what is collected within a notified framework.
| What | Figure | The condition on it | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time to furnish the information | As specified in the notice | The section fixes no period — the form, manner and time all come from the notice itself | 259(1) |
A notice under this section can reach you even though nothing is pending in your own case, because the trigger is the authority's verification of information it already has. The form, manner and deadline are whatever the notice states, so the notice has to be read for its own terms rather than against any statutory period. What is furnished can be processed and used under the scheme notified under section 260, and the word "proceeding" carries the section 253 meaning rather than an ordinary one.
The prescribed income-tax authority holds information about payments made by a firm against which nothing is pending, and issues a notice requiring the firm to furnish details of them in the form and manner the notice states and within the time it fixes — twenty-one days, say, the section itself laying down no period at all. The firm cannot answer that it is not under inquiry: sub-section (1) reaches “any person” whose information is useful for, or relevant to, any inquiry or proceeding under the Act, and the trigger is the authority's verification of information it already has. What is furnished may then be processed and used under the scheme notified under section 260.
As a notice under sub-section (1) from the prescribed income-tax authority, which can arrive whether or not any proceeding of your own is on foot. Everything about compliance — form, manner and deadline — has to be read off the notice itself, because the section fixes none.
such authority may issue a notice requiring any person to furnish any information as may be useful for, or relevant to, any inquiry or proceeding under this Act in such form and manner and within such time, as specified in such notice
See the full 1961 to 2025 concordance.
All of them are in the Rules 2026 index.
See the notifications index.