Section 526 of the Income-tax Act, 2025

Section 526 — Bar of suits in civil courts. Successor to s.293 of the 1961 Act.

Where this section sits

Section 526 is in Chapter XXIII — Miscellaneous, which runs from section 499 to section 536.

What this section does

The section contains two bars. The first is that no suit may be brought in any civil court to set aside or modify any proceeding taken or order made under the Act. The second is that no prosecution, suit or other proceeding lies against the Government or any officer of the Government for anything done, or intended to be done, in good faith under the Act.

Why it is there

The Act supplies its own hierarchy of appeal, revision and reference for testing what the authorities do, and a parallel civil suit would allow the same order to be attacked outside that structure and outside its time limits. The first bar keeps challenges inside the Act; the second protects officers from personal proceedings for good faith acts, so that the risk of being sued does not shape how the Act is applied.

Who it applies to

Any person seeking to set aside or modify a proceeding taken or an order made under the Act
The Government, and any officer of the Government acting or intending to act in good faith under the Act
A civil court before which such a suit or proceeding is brought

What this means in practice

The two bars are not the same and one is wider. The first is absolute in its terms — no suit in any civil court to set aside or modify a proceeding taken or an order made under the Act — and does not turn on good faith. The second is qualified, protecting the Government and its officers only for anything done or intended to be done in good faith under the Act, so it does not cover an act outside the Act or one not in good faith. Both bars go to the forum, not the merits: the remedy is the appeal, revision and reference machinery the Act itself provides.

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 assessee dissatisfied with an assessment order files a civil suit asking the court to set it aside. The first limb of the section bars the suit, whatever the merits of the complaint, and the assessee must use the remedies under the Act instead. If in the same matter he also sues the Assessing Officer personally for having made the assessment, the second limb bars that proceeding as well, provided what the officer did was done in good faith under the Act.

Where you meet this section

Raised as a preliminary objection in a civil suit brought against an order, an officer or the Government; a taxpayer normally meets it as the reason a civil court declines to entertain a challenge that has to go through the Act's own appellate route.

The words themselves

No suit shall be brought in any civil court to set aside or modify any proceeding taken or order made under this Act

Section 526, Income-tax Act, 2025.

for anything in good faith done or intended to be done under this Act

Section 526, Income-tax Act, 2025.

What people get wrong

Reading the first bar as requiring good faith. Good faith qualifies only the protection of the Government and its officers in the second limb.
Reading the second bar as absolute. It covers anything in good faith done or intended to be done under the Act, and no further.
Treating the section as denying a remedy. It bars the civil court route; the remedies under the Act's own appeal, revision and reference provisions are unaffected.
Assuming only final orders are protected. The first bar covers any proceeding taken as well as any order made under the Act.

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.

293 - Bar of suits in civil courts

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.