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Case law › Income-tax Act 2025 › Chapter XXII › Section 495
Chapter XXIIwas s.280A

Section 495 of the Income-tax Act, 2025

Section 495 — Special Courts. Successor to s.280A of the 1961 Act.

Where this section sits

Section 495 is in Chapter XXII — Offences and Prosecutions, which runs from section 473 to section 498.

← Section 494  ·  Section 496 →

What this section does

Sub-section (1) empowers the Central Government, in consultation with the Chief Justice of the High Court, to designate by notification one or more courts of Judicial Magistrate of the first class as a Special Court for the trial of offences punishable under this Chapter, for specified areas or for specified cases or classes or groups of cases. Sub-section (2) identifies the relevant High Court as that of the State in which the designated magistrate was functioning immediately before designation. Sub-section (3) lets a Special Court trying an offence under the Act also try any other offence with which the accused may, under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, be charged at the same trial.

Why it is there

Prosecutions under the Chapter are channelled into designated magistrates' courts rather than left across the general criminal courts, and sub-section (3) prevents an accused's related non-tax charges from having to be split into a separate trial.

Who it applies to

What this means in practice

The forum is a Judicial Magistrate of the first class designated by notification, so the notification for the area or class of case determines where a prosecution is tried; there is no separately constituted tribunal. Designation is not unilateral — it requires consultation with the Chief Justice of the High Court identified by sub-section (2). If you face non-tax charges arising from the same matter, expect them to be tried together in the Special Court where the Sanhita permits joint charging.

An example

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

The Central Government, in consultation with the Chief Justice of the High Court of the State concerned, notifies a court of Judicial Magistrate of the first class as the Special Court for an area. A prosecution for an offence punishable under Chapter XXII is then tried there and not before any other magistrate. If the same accused can, under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, be charged at the same trial with an offence outside that Chapter, sub-section (3) lets the Special Court try that offence too, so the proceedings are not split between two courts.

Where you meet this section

You meet it as the notification designating the Special Court, and then as the court in which a prosecution under Chapter XXII is actually tried. It is a court of Judicial Magistrate of the first class designated for the purpose, not a separately constituted or higher court.

The words themselves

may, for trial of offences punishable under this Chapter, by notification, designate one or more courts of Judicial Magistrate of the first class as Special Court
Section 495(1), Income-tax Act, 2025.

What people get wrong

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.

See the full 1961 to 2025 concordance.

Notifications that reach this section

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.

See every circular and notification on this section, or the notifications index.

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.