Section 373 — Filing of appeal by income-tax authority. Successor to s.268A of the 1961 Act.
Section 373 is in Chapter XVIII — Appeals Revisions and Alternate Dispute Resolutions, which runs from section 356 to section 389.
Sub-section (1) empowers the Board to issue orders, instructions or directions to other income-tax authorities from time to time, fixing such monetary limits as it deems fit, for regulating the filing of appeals by any income-tax authority under this Chapter.
Sub-section (2) provides that where, in pursuance of those orders, an authority has not filed an appeal on an issue in an assessee's case for a tax year, that does not preclude it from appealing on the same issue in the case of the same assessee for any other tax year, or of any other assessee for the same or any other tax year. Sub-section (3) makes it not lawful for an assessee who is a party in any appeal to contend that the authority acquiesced in the decision on the disputed issue by not filing an appeal in any case. Sub-section (4) requires the Appellate Tribunal or the Court hearing such an appeal to have regard to those orders, instructions or directions and to the circumstances in which the appeal was filed or not filed.
Departmental appeals below a certain tax effect cost more than they recover, so the Board is given a way to filter them centrally. The rest of the section removes the price of that filter: if a non-appeal could be read as acceptance of the point, the Department would have to appeal everything to protect its position. Sub-sections (2) and (3) make the non-appeal legally inert.
| What | Figure | The condition on it | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monetary limits regulating appeals by income-tax authorities | Such monetary limits as the Board may deem fit — the section states no amount | Fixed by orders, instructions or directions issued from time to time, for appeals under this Chapter | Sub-section (1) |
The section operates against an argument rather than against an appeal. A departmental non-appeal below the Board's limit creates no estoppel: sub-section (2) preserves the same issue for other years and other assessees, and sub-section (3) makes the acquiescence contention unlawful for an assessee who is a party. Sub-section (4) cuts slightly the other way, requiring the Appellate Tribunal or Court to look at the Board's instructions and at why the appeal was or was not filed — so those instructions are relevant material even though the non-filing proves nothing on the merits.
The Department does not appeal a Rs 30 lakh addition decided against it for one tax year, the tax effect being below the Board's limit. The same issue arises for the same company two years later above the limit, and for a different company. Sub-section (2) lets the Department appeal in both, and sub-section (3) makes it unlawful for either assessee to argue that the earlier non-filing amounted to acceptance of the point.
You meet it when the Department appeals an issue it let go in another year or another case, and in how the Appellate Tribunal or Court deals with that objection — sub-section (4) makes the Board's instructions and the circumstances of filing relevant to the hearing itself.
fixing such monetary limits as it may deem fit, for the purpose of regulating filing of appeal by any income-tax authority under the provisions of this Chapter
it shall not be lawful for an assessee, being a party in any appeal, to contend that the income-tax authority has acquiesced in the decision on the disputed issue by not filing an appeal in any case
See the full 1961 to 2025 concordance.
See the circulars index.