Section 513 — Appearance by registered valuer in certain matters. Successor to s.287A of the 1961 Act.
Section 513 is in Chapter XXIII — Miscellaneous, which runs from section 499 to section 536.
Sub-section (1) allows any assessee entitled or required to attend before any income-tax authority or the Appellate Tribunal, in matters relating to the valuation of any asset, to attend through a registered valuer. Sub-section (2) disapplies that where the assessee is required to attend personally for examination on oath or affirmation under section 246. Sub-section (3) defines "registered valuer" as a person registered as a valuer under section 514.
Valuation is a technical question, and an assessee arguing it before an income-tax authority or the Appellate Tribunal is better served by the person qualified to speak to the valuation than by his own presence. The section therefore permits attendance through a registered valuer, but the exception in sub-section (2) preserves the authority's power to have the assessee himself on oath — a representative cannot be substituted where the object is the assessee's own testimony.
The permission is confined by subject matter: it covers matters relating to the valuation of any asset, not the proceeding generally. It is also confined by qualification — only a person registered as a valuer under section 514 qualifies. The exception in sub-section (2) is the limit that matters in practice: once the assessee is required to attend personally for examination on oath or affirmation under section 246, the valuer cannot stand in his place.
A company's assessment turns on the value of a property, and the Assessing Officer fixes a hearing on that question. Under sub-section (1) the company may attend through a person registered as a valuer under section 514 rather than sending its own officer. If the Assessing Officer instead requires a named officer of the company to attend personally for examination on oath under section 246, sub-section (2) removes that option and the officer must appear himself.
You meet this at a hearing before an income-tax authority or the Appellate Tribunal where the valuation of an asset is in issue, as the basis on which a registered valuer appears for the assessee. It is displaced by a summons under section 246 requiring the assessee's personal attendance for examination on oath.
Any assessee, entitled or required to attend before any income-tax authority or the Appellate Tribunal in matters relating to the valuation of any asset, may attend through a registered valuer.
The provisions of sub-section (1) shall not apply, where the assessee is required to attend personally for examination on oath or affirmation under section 246.
See the full 1961 to 2025 concordance.
All of them are in the Rules 2026 index.
