Chapter XXIIIwas s.292A

Section 521 of the Income-tax Act, 2025

Section 521 — Probation of Offenders Act, 1958 and section 401 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, not to apply. Successor to s.292A of the 1961 Act.

Where this section sits

Section 521 is in Chapter XXIII — Miscellaneous, which runs from section 499 to section 536.

← Section 520 · Section 522 →

What this section does

A single sentence excluding two sentencing reliefs: the Probation of Offenders Act, 1958 and section 401 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 do not apply to a person convicted of an offence under this Act, unless that person is under eighteen years of age.

Why it is there

Offences under the Act are meant to carry their prescribed sentence, so the general power to release an offender on probation or after admonition is switched off. The single exception preserves the reliefs for a convicted person below eighteen.

Who it applies to

A person convicted of an offence under this Act
A convicted person under eighteen years of age (for whom the exclusion does not apply)
The court sentencing the offence

The figures, and what each one turns on

Read the condition in the same row. A figure quoted without it is a wrong answer with a citation attached.

What	Figure	The condition on it	Where
Age at which the exclusion ceases to apply	Eighteen years	A person convicted of an offence under the Act who is under eighteen may still have the benefit of the Probation of Offenders Act, 1958 and section 401 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023	S.521

What this means in practice

On conviction for an offence under this Act there is no route to release on probation or on admonition under the general criminal law — the sentence prescribed by the offence provision applies. The only person who keeps those options is one under eighteen at the relevant time. This does not affect the amount of any sentence or fine, only the availability of these two reliefs.

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 individual is convicted of an offence under the Act and asks the court for the benefit of the Probation of Offenders Act, 1958, or for release after admonition under section 401 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023. Section 521 shuts both out: neither applies to a person convicted of an offence under this Act. The single exception is age — a convicted person under eighteen years keeps both reliefs, so the whole of the bar turns on that one fact.

Where you meet this section

You meet it at sentencing, after conviction for an offence under the Act, when probation or admonition is asked for. It changes nothing about the offence or the punishment prescribed for it; it only removes those two reliefs.

The words themselves

shall not apply to a person convicted of an offence under this Act unless that person is under eighteen years of age

s.521, Income-tax Act, 2025.

What people get wrong

Treating the exclusion as absolute. It does not apply where the convicted person is under eighteen years of age.
Assuming it affects the offence or the sentence prescribed. The section only removes the probation and admonition reliefs on conviction.

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.

292A - Section 360 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, and the Probation of Offenders Act, 1958, not to apply

See the full 1961 to 2025 concordance.

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.