Section 525 of the Income-tax Act, 2025

Section 525 — Authorisation and assessment in case of search or requisition. Successor to s.292CC of the 1961 Act.

Where this section sits

Section 525 is in Chapter XXIII — Miscellaneous, which runs from section 499 to section 536.

What this section does

Sub-section (1) applies irrespective of anything contained in the Act and settles two points about a joint warrant. It is not necessary to issue an authorisation under section 247, or to make a requisition under section 248, separately in the name of each person. And where an authorisation or requisition has been issued or made mentioning the names of more than one person, the mention of those names on it shall not be deemed to construe that it was issued in the name of an association of persons or body of individuals consisting of those persons.

Sub-section (2) deals with what follows. Irrespective of an authorisation issued under section 247 or a requisition made under section 248 mentioning the name of more than one person, the assessment or reassessment shall be made separately in the name of each of the persons mentioned in it.

Why it is there

A search or requisition often has to cover a group of connected persons and a common premises, and requiring a separate warrant for each name would be a formality that invites challenge without protecting anyone. The section removes that objection, but it refuses to let administrative convenience change who is assessed: naming several persons on one warrant does not create a single assessable entity, and sub-section (2) requires the assessments to be framed one by one.

Who it applies to

A person named in an authorisation under section 247 or a requisition under section 248 that also names others
The authority issuing the authorisation or making the requisition
The Assessing Officer framing the assessment or reassessment that follows

What this means in practice

The section grants a procedural convenience and denies a substantive consequence, and the two must not be run together. What is permitted is a single authorisation or requisition covering several names; what is expressly not permitted is treating that document as issued in the name of an association of persons or body of individuals made up of them, or making one assessment on the group. Sub-section (2) is the safeguard, and it is framed to override the joint warrant — the assessment or reassessment is to be made "separately in the name of each of the persons mentioned". Note also the limits of the section: it addresses only how many names may appear on an authorisation under section 247 or a requisition under section 248, and says nothing about the validity of the search itself or about any other proceeding.

An example

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

One warrant under section 247 names three family members and is executed at premises they share. Sub-section (1) means the warrant is not bad merely because it was not issued separately in each name, and does not turn the three into an association of persons. Sub-section (2) then requires the consequent assessments to be framed separately, one in each of the three names on that person's own income — a single combined assessment on all three would not be an assessment this section permits.

Where you meet this section

In the authorisation or requisition itself, and in the assessment order that follows a search or requisition. It is the answer to an objection that a warrant naming several persons was invalid, and the ground for objecting to a single assessment framed on all of them together.

The words themselves

it shall not be necessary to issue an authorisation under section 247 or make a requisition under section 248 separately in the name of each person

Section 525(1)(a), Income-tax Act, 2025.

the mention of such names of more than one person on such authorisation or requisition shall not be deemed to construe that it was issued in the name of an association of persons or body of individuals consisting of such persons

Section 525(1)(b), Income-tax Act, 2025.

the assessment or reassessment shall be made separately in the name of each of the persons mentioned in such authorisation or requisition

Section 525(2), Income-tax Act, 2025.

What people get wrong

Reading a joint warrant as creating an association of persons or body of individuals. Sub-section (1)(b) forbids that construction in terms.
Framing one combined assessment on everyone named. Sub-section (2) requires a separate assessment or reassessment in each name, irrespective of the joint authorisation or requisition.
Objecting that the warrant should have been issued separately in each name. Sub-section (1)(a) says that is not necessary.
Treating the section as validating the search or requisition generally. It removes only the objection based on more than one name appearing on the authorisation or requisition.
Extending it to a survey. The section speaks only of an authorisation under section 247 and a requisition under section 248.

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.

292CC - Authorisation and assessment in case of search or requisition

See the full 1961 to 2025 concordance.

Read with

Section 247
Section 248

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.