Section 522 — Return of income, etc , not to be invalid on certain grounds. Successor to s.292B of the 1961 Act.
Section 522 is in Chapter XXIII — Miscellaneous, which runs from section 499 to section 536.
The section, as substituted by Act No. 4 of 2026 with effect from 1 April 2026, now has three sub-sections. Sub-section (1) carries forward the original rule: no return of income, assessment, notice, summons or other proceeding relating to them, furnished, made, issued or taken, or purporting to be, under any provision of the Act, is invalid or deemed invalid merely by reason of a mistake, defect or omission in it, if it is in substance and effect in conformity with or according to the intent and purposes of the Act.
Sub-section (2), which is new, provides that no assessment under any provision of the Act is invalid on the ground of a mistake, defect or omission in quoting a computer generated Document Identification Number, if the assessment order is referenced by such number in any manner. Sub-section (3), also new, provides that irrespective of anything contained in the Act, any approval given by an income-tax authority in relation to assessment, reassessment or recomputation proceedings is deemed to be administrative and supervisory in nature and is not invalid by reason of any insufficiency of the reasons recorded, or of any defect in the form or manner of its authentication or communication, including whether or not a digital signature has been appended, where the approval has been granted electronically.
Sub-section (1) exists so that a proceeding which does what the Act intends is not undone by a clerical slip. The two sub-sections added with effect from 1 April 2026 extend the same protection to two features of an electronic assessment process that had become grounds of challenge in their own right — the quoting of a Document Identification Number, and the internal approvals that precede an order. Sub-section (3) does this by reclassifying such approvals as administrative and supervisory, which is what removes the expectation that they carry adequate recorded reasons.
The saving in sub-section (1) is conditional, not absolute: the document or proceeding must still be in substance and effect in conformity with, or according to, the intent and purposes of the Act, so a defect that goes to substance is not cured by this section. Sub-sections (2) and (3) are narrower in subject but harder in effect. Sub-section (2) requires only that the assessment order be referenced by a computer generated Document Identification Number "in any manner" — the manner of quoting it is not a ground of invalidity. Sub-section (3) is the significant one for anyone challenging an assessment: an electronically granted approval is deemed administrative and supervisory, so an argument that the approving authority recorded insufficient reasons, or that the approval was defectively authenticated or communicated, or that no digital signature was appended, no longer invalidates it. Both new sub-sections took effect on 1 April 2026; before the substitution the section consisted of what is now sub-section (1) alone.
An assessment order is challenged on two grounds: that the Document Identification Number appears in the covering communication rather than on the order in the prescribed place, and that the Principal Commissioner's electronic approval recorded a single line of reasons and carried no digital signature. Sub-section (2) answers the first, because the order is referenced by such a number in some manner. Sub-section (3) answers the second, because an approval granted electronically is deemed administrative and supervisory and is not invalid for insufficiency of reasons or for a defect in authentication.
A taxpayer meets this section in the Department's reply to a challenge — in an appellate or writ proceeding where he says a notice, order or approval was defective, and this is the provision cited against him.
if such return of income, assessment, notice, summons or other proceeding is in substance and effect in conformity with or according to the intent and purposes of this Act
shall be deemed to be administrative and supervisory in nature and, shall not be invalid by reason of any insufficiency of the reasons recorded or by reason of any defect in the form or manner of its authentication or communication
See the full 1961 to 2025 concordance.
See the circulars index.
