A notice has arrived from a centralised unit under s.133C rather than from my Assessing Officer under s.133(6). What is it, and who can issue it?
Section 133C lets a prescribed income-tax authority issue a notice, for the purpose of verifying information already in its possession about a person, requiring that person to furnish information or documents verified in the manner specified. Rule 12D prescribes that authority as an income-tax authority not below the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Income-tax authorised by the Board to act as such. What comes back is processed and used under the scheme notified under s.133C(3) or under s.135A.
Decided by the CBDT Circulars & Instructions (Not applicable — statutory text) on 2019-01-30, reported as Rule 12D as substituted by the Income-tax (First Amendment) Rules 2019 with effect from 30 January 2019, as corrected by Corrigendum G.S.R. 93(E) dated 5 February 2019; s.133C as amended by Act No. 38 of 2020 with effect from 1 November 2020. It bears on section 133C, section Rule 12D, section 135A, section 133(6) of the Income Tax Act 1961, in Assessment & Scrutiny, Faceless Assessment & Appeals and Evidence & Burden of Proof matters.
This is the route most centralised and electronic enquiries now travel, and it is not the same power as s.133(6). It presupposes information already in the authority's possession and is directed at verifying it, which shapes both what may be asked and what a reply should address.
Binding on the department, not on the assessee or the courts. An assessee may rely on a circular that is beneficial to them.
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Section 133C(1) provides that the prescribed income-tax authority may, for the purposes of verification of information in its possession relating to any person, issue a notice to that person requiring him, on or before a date specified, to furnish information or documents verified in the manner specified, which may be useful for, or relevant to, any inquiry or proceeding under the Act. Sub-section (2) provides that where information or a document has been received in response, the prescribed authority may process and utilise it in accordance with the scheme notified under sub-section (3) or the provisions of s.135A. Sub-section (3) empowers the Board to make a scheme for centralised issuance of notice, for processing of information or documents, and for making the outcome available to the Assessing Officer. Sub-section (4) provides that a scheme made under sub-section (3) ceases to have effect from the date the scheme notified under s.135A in respect of this section comes into effect. Rule 12D provides that the prescribed income-tax authority under s.133C shall be an income-tax authority not below the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Income-tax who has been authorised by the Central Board of Direct Taxes to act as such authority for the purposes of that section.
The statutory position is as follows. Section 133C(1) confers the power on the prescribed income-tax authority, and what it confers is a power of verification. The notice may be issued "for the purposes of verification of information in its possession relating to any person", and it is issued to that person. What may be required of him is that he furnish, on or before a date to be specified in the notice, information or documents verified in the manner specified in it, "which may be useful for, or relevant to, any inquiry or proceeding under this Act". Rule 12D prescribes the authority: an income-tax authority not below the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Income-tax who has been authorised by the Central Board of Direct Taxes to act as such authority for the purposes of that section. Section 133C(2), as substituted by Act No. 38 of 2020 with effect from 1 November 2020, provides that where any information or document has been received in response to a notice issued under sub-section (1), the prescribed income-tax authority may process and utilise it in accordance with the scheme notified under sub-section (3) or the provisions of s.135A. Section 133C(3) empowers the Board to make a scheme for centralised issuance of notice and for processing of information or documents and making available the outcome of the processing to the Assessing Officer. Section 133C(4), inserted by the same Act with effect from the same date, provides that the scheme made under sub-section (3) shall cease to have effect from the date on which the scheme notified under s.135A in respect of this section comes into effect. The section ends there. It carries no proviso. Nothing in it conditions the issue of a notice on the approval of any higher authority; nothing in it turns on whether a proceeding is pending against the person served; and the second proviso to s.133 - which provides that the power in respect of an inquiry, in a case where no proceeding is pending, shall not be exercised by any income-tax authority below the rank of Director or Commissioner without the prior approval of the Director or the Commissioner - is a proviso to s.133 and governs the s.133(6) power. It does not govern this route.
No decided authority on s.133C or Rule 12D was found, so none of what follows has been tested in court; it is read off the text, and it should be used that way. The first thing the text settles is that s.133C and s.133(6) are not the same power differently worded. Section 133(6) begins with nothing: the authority requires a person to furnish information in relation to points or matters, or statements of accounts and affairs, for the purposes of the Act, and the second proviso then addresses the case where the power is used for an inquiry and no proceeding is pending. Section 133C begins further along. It presupposes information already in the authority's possession relating to the person served, and the notice is issued for the purpose of verifying that information. The words "useful for, or relevant to, any inquiry or proceeding" describe what the material may go on to serve; they are not the occasion for the notice. A reply to a s.133C notice therefore has a target - whatever the department already holds - and the first question to put to such a notice is what that is. The second thing the text settles is the consequence of that difference for what can be argued. Because s.133C starts from information already held, the drafting had no occasion for the pending-proceeding distinction on which the second proviso to s.133 is built, and it carries no proviso at all. The safeguard that a s.133(6) enquiry must carry the prior approval of the Director or Commissioner where the officer is below that rank and no proceeding is pending has no textual purchase against a notice issued under s.133C. An assessee who answers a centralised notice on the footing that it is a s.133(6) enquiry, and who builds his objection on the absence of approval, is objecting under the wrong provision. That is why the provision printed on the notice has to be read before anything is drafted. What stands in place of the approval safeguard is rank and authorisation. Rule 12D fixes the prescribed authority by two things only - a floor of Assistant Commissioner, and authorisation by the Board for the purposes of the section. It says nothing about jurisdiction over the person served. Read with the words "centralised issuance of notice" in s.133C(3), and with s.135A(1)(c), which contemplates "a team-based exercise of powers, including to call for, or collect, or process, or utilise, the information, with dynamic jurisdiction", the design is that the notice comes from a designated unit rather than from the officer who holds the file. The objection that the issuing authority had no jurisdiction over the assessee does not fit that design. What can be checked is the designation: rank, and whether the issuer is one the Board has authorised. The third feature is that s.133C separates the calling for from the using. Sub-section (1) is issue and furnishing; sub-section (2) is processing and utilisation, and it is not at large - it is to be done in accordance with the scheme notified under sub-section (3) or the provisions of s.135A; sub-section (3) has the outcome of the processing made available to the Assessing Officer. So the section contemplates that material reaching an assessment does so through the Assessing Officer, and what he may then do with it is governed by the ordinary provisions, not by s.133C. The section itself does not make a reply evidence in any proceeding and does not dispense with anything the Assessing Officer would otherwise have to do before using material against an assessee. Sub-section (4) shows the section anticipating the replacement of its own machinery. The scheme under sub-section (3) ceases when a scheme notified under s.135A in respect of s.133C comes into effect. Which machinery governs a given notice therefore depends on whether that has happened, and that is a question of fact about notifications rather than of construction. It is worth noting that s.135A(2), the power to disapply or modify provisions of the Act for the purposes of such a scheme, is closed by its proviso to directions issued on or before 31 March 2022, while the scheme-making power in s.135A(1) is not so limited. One gap is left open on the face of the statute. Section 272A(2)(c) penalises failure to furnish in due time any of the returns, statements or particulars mentioned in s.133 or s.206 or s.206C or s.285B. It names s.133. It does not name s.133C. Whether a default on a s.133C notice is reached by that clause, or by any other penal provision, was not established here and should not be assumed either way.
an income-tax authority not below the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Income-tax who has been authorised by the Central Board of Direct Taxes
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Handle my notice → Ask a CA on WhatsAppSection 133C lets a prescribed income-tax authority issue a notice, for the purpose of verifying information already in its possession about a person, requiring that person to furnish information or documents verified in the manner specified. Rule 12D prescribes that authority as an income-tax authority not below the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Income-tax authorised by the Board to act as such. What comes back is processed and used under the scheme notified under s.133C(3) or under s.135A. This was decided by the CBDT Circulars & Instructions (Not applicable — statutory text) and bears on section 133C, section Rule 12D, section 135A, section 133(6) of the Income Tax Act 1961. It is reported as Rule 12D as substituted by the Income-tax (First Amendment) Rules 2019 with effect from 30 January 2019, as corrected by Corrigendum G.S.R. 93(E) dated 5 February 2019; s.133C as amended by Act No. 38 of 2020 with effect from 1 November 2020. This is the route most centralised and electronic enquiries now travel, and it is not the same power as s.133(6). It presupposes information already in the authority's possession and is directed at verifying it, which shapes both what may be asked and what a reply should address. If it applies to you, the first step is this: Read the notice for the provision it is issued under; s.133C and s.133(6) are different powers with different preconditions.
Section 133C(1) provides that the prescribed income-tax authority may, for the purposes of verification of information in its possession relating to any person, issue a notice to that person requiring him, on or before a date specified, to furnish information or documents verified in the manner specified, which may be useful for, or relevant to, any inquiry or proceeding under the Act. Sub-section (2) provides that where information or a document has been received in response, the prescribed authority may process and utilise it in accordance with the scheme notified under sub-section (3) or the provisions of s.135A. Sub-section (3) empowers the Board to make a scheme for centralised issuance of notice, for processing of information or documents, and for making the outcome available to the Assessing Officer. Sub-section (4) provides that a scheme made under sub-section (3) ceases to have effect from the date the scheme notified under s.135A in respect of this section comes into effect. Rule 12D provides that the prescribed income-tax authority under s.133C shall be an income-tax authority not below the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Income-tax who has been authorised by the Central Board of Direct Taxes to act as such authority for the purposes of that section. The matter was decided on 2019-01-30 by the CBDT Circulars & Instructions (Not applicable — statutory text). On those facts the CBDT Circulars & Instructions held as follows. The statutory position is as follows. Section 133C(1) confers the power on the prescribed income-tax authority, and what it confers is a power of verification. The notice may be issued "for the purposes of verification of information in its possession relating to any person", and it is issued to that person. What may be required of him is that he furnish, on or before a date to be specified in the notice, information or documents verified in the manner specified in it, "which may be useful for, or relevant to, any inquiry or proceeding under this Act". Rule 12D prescribes the authority: an income-tax authority not below the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Income-tax who has been authorised by the Central Board of Direct Taxes to act as such authority for the purposes of that section. Section 133C(2), as substituted by Act No. 38 of 2020 with effect from 1 November 2020, provides that where any information or document has been received in response to a notice issued under sub-section (1), the prescribed income-tax authority may process and utilise it in accordance with the scheme notified under sub-section (3) or the provisions of s.135A. Section 133C(3) empowers the Board to make a scheme for centralised issuance of notice and for processing of information or documents and making available the outcome of the processing to the Assessing Officer. Section 133C(4), inserted by the same Act with effect from the same date, provides that the scheme made under sub-section (3) shall cease to have effect from the date on which the scheme notified under s.135A in respect of this section comes into effect. The section ends there. It carries no proviso. Nothing in it conditions the issue of a notice on the approval of any higher authority; nothing in it turns on whether a proceeding is pending against the person served; and the second proviso to s.133 - which provides that the power in respect of an inquiry, in a case where no proceeding is pending, shall not be exercised by any income-tax authority below the rank of Director or Commissioner without the prior approval of the Director or the Commissioner - is a proviso to s.133 and governs the s.133(6) power. It does not govern this route.
No decided authority on s.133C or Rule 12D was found, so none of what follows has been tested in court; it is read off the text, and it should be used that way. The first thing the text settles is that s.133C and s.133(6) are not the same power differently worded. Section 133(6) begins with nothing: the authority requires a person to furnish information in relation to points or matters, or statements of accounts and affairs, for the purposes of the Act, and the second proviso then addresses the case where the power is used for an inquiry and no proceeding is pending. Section 133C begins further along. It presupposes information already in the authority's possession relating to the person served, and the notice is issued for the purpose of verifying that information. The words "useful for, or relevant to, any inquiry or proceeding" describe what the material may go on to serve; they are not the occasion for the notice. A reply to a s.133C notice therefore has a target - whatever the department already holds - and the first question to put to such a notice is what that is. The second thing the text settles is the consequence of that difference for what can be argued. Because s.133C starts from information already held, the drafting had no occasion for the pending-proceeding distinction on which the second proviso to s.133 is built, and it carries no proviso at all. The safeguard that a s.133(6) enquiry must carry the prior approval of the Director or Commissioner where the officer is below that rank and no proceeding is pending has no textual purchase against a notice issued under s.133C. An assessee who answers a centralised notice on the footing that it is a s.133(6) enquiry, and who builds his objection on the absence of approval, is objecting under the wrong provision. That is why the provision printed on the notice has to be read before anything is drafted. What stands in place of the approval safeguard is rank and authorisation. Rule 12D fixes the prescribed authority by two things only - a floor of Assistant Commissioner, and authorisation by the Board for the purposes of the section. It says nothing about jurisdiction over the person served. Read with the words "centralised issuance of notice" in s.133C(3), and with s.135A(1)(c), which contemplates "a team-based exercise of powers, including to call for, or collect, or process, or utilise, the information, with dynamic jurisdiction", the design is that the notice comes from a designated unit rather than from the officer who holds the file. The objection that the issuing authority had no jurisdiction over the assessee does not fit that design. What can be checked is the designation: rank, and whether the issuer is one the Board has authorised. The third feature is that s.133C separates the calling for from the using. Sub-section (1) is issue and furnishing; sub-section (2) is processing and utilisation, and it is not at large - it is to be done in accordance with the scheme notified under sub-section (3) or the provisions of s.135A; sub-section (3) has the outcome of the processing made available to the Assessing Officer. So the section contemplates that material reaching an assessment does so through the Assessing Officer, and what he may then do with it is governed by the ordinary provisions, not by s.133C. The section itself does not make a reply evidence in any proceeding and does not dispense with anything the Assessing Officer would otherwise have to do before using material against an assessee. Sub-section (4) shows the section anticipating the replacement of its own machinery. The scheme under sub-section (3) ceases when a scheme notified under s.135A in respect of s.133C comes into effect. Which machinery governs a given notice therefore depends on whether that has happened, and that is a question of fact about notifications rather than of construction. It is worth noting that s.135A(2), the power to disapply or modify provisions of the Act for the purposes of such a scheme, is closed by its proviso to directions issued on or before 31 March 2022, while the scheme-making power in s.135A(1) is not so limited. One gap is left open on the face of the statute. Section 272A(2)(c) penalises failure to furnish in due time any of the returns, statements or particulars mentioned in s.133 or s.206 or s.206C or s.285B. It names s.133. It does not name s.133C. Whether a default on a s.133C notice is reached by that clause, or by any other penal provision, was not established here and should not be assumed either way. In the words reproduced by the source cited on this page: "an income-tax authority not below the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Income-tax who has been authorised by the Central Board of Direct Taxes"
It was decided by the CBDT Circulars & Instructions on 2019-01-30 and is reported as Rule 12D as substituted by the Income-tax (First Amendment) Rules 2019 with effect from 30 January 2019, as corrected by Corrigendum G.S.R. 93(E) dated 5 February 2019; s.133C as amended by Act No. 38 of 2020 with effect from 1 November 2020. Binding on the department, not on the assessee or the courts. An assessee may rely on a circular that is beneficial to them. A CBDT circular or instruction binds officers of the department but not the assessee and not the courts. Where a circular helps you, you may hold the department to it. Where it hurts you, it cannot override the Act or a judgment. On section 133C, section Rule 12D, section 135A, section 133(6), the practical question is whether the facts of your own notice match the facts of this case closely enough for the same rule to apply.
It cuts both ways and is cited by both sides. The statutory position is as follows. Section 133C(1) confers the power on the prescribed income-tax authority, and what it confers is a power of verification. The notice may be issued "for the purposes of verification of information in its possession relating to any person", and it is issued to that person. What may be required of him is that he furnish, on or before a date to be specified in the notice, information or documents verified in the manner specified in it, "which may be useful for, or relevant to, any inquiry or proceeding under this Act". Rule 12D prescribes the authority: an income-tax authority not below the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Income-tax who has been authorised by the Central Board of Direct Taxes to act as such authority for the purposes of that section. Section 133C(2), as substituted by Act No. 38 of 2020 with effect from 1 November 2020, provides that where any information or document has been received in response to a notice issued under sub-section (1), the prescribed income-tax authority may process and utilise it in accordance with the scheme notified under sub-section (3) or the provisions of s.135A. Section 133C(3) empowers the Board to make a scheme for centralised issuance of notice and for processing of information or documents and making available the outcome of the processing to the Assessing Officer. Section 133C(4), inserted by the same Act with effect from the same date, provides that the scheme made under sub-section (3) shall cease to have effect from the date on which the scheme notified under s.135A in respect of this section comes into effect. The section ends there. It carries no proviso. Nothing in it conditions the issue of a notice on the approval of any higher authority; nothing in it turns on whether a proceeding is pending against the person served; and the second proviso to s.133 - which provides that the power in respect of an inquiry, in a case where no proceeding is pending, shall not be exercised by any income-tax authority below the rank of Director or Commissioner without the prior approval of the Director or the Commissioner - is a proviso to s.133 and governs the s.133(6) power. It does not govern this route. It arises in Assessment & Scrutiny, Faceless Assessment & Appeals and Evidence & Burden of Proof matters, on section 133C, section Rule 12D, section 135A, section 133(6) of the Income Tax Act 1961, and was decided by Not applicable — statutory text. Before relying on it, read the source linked on this page and check whether it has since been distinguished, overruled or overtaken by an amendment to the Income Tax Act. In practice the steps that follow from it are these. For a s.133C notice, ask what information in the authority's possession is being verified - the section is framed around verification, not open enquiry. Check the rank of the issuing authority against Rule 12D: not below Assistant Commissioner, and authorised by the Board. Furnish the information in the manner the notice specifies, verified as required, and keep proof - the s.272A(2)(c) penalty extends to failures to furnish particulars mentioned in s.133.
Searched for later treatment; none was found. That is not the same as a source affirming it. No decided authority on the operation of s.133C or Rule 12D was found. Two differently worded searches on the Act and the rule together, and on the section with the words 'prescribed income-tax authority', returned only decisions in which s.133C appears in a recitation of statutory provisions - for example Jyoti Sareen v Union of India (Punjab and Haryana High Court, 10 September 2026), which is about s.151A and faceless allocation, not about s.133C. This provision is administered without reported litigation so far. No source could be cited for that finding. Checking whether an authority still stands matters as much as knowing what it held: a decision may be overruled on one point and survive on another, or the provision it interprets may have been amended since. Read the source and the editor's note on this page before relying on it in a reply to an Assessing Officer or in an appeal.
This entry is statutory text, not a decision. The text of s.133C is taken from the department's own page, which records the substitution of sub-section (2) and the insertion of sub-section (4) by Act No. 38 of 2020 with effect from 1 November 2020. Rule 12D is taken from the department's own page, which records it as substituted by the Income-tax (First Amendment) Rules 2019 with effect from 30 January 2019, as corrected by Corrigendum G.S.R. 93(E) dated 5 February 2019; the date recorded in this entry is that substitution date, since the rule as it now stands dates from then. The static page for Rule 12D at incometaxindia.gov.in/Rules/Income-Tax Rules/Rules012D.htm returned a 404 and the text here comes from the department's current section-and-rule viewer. Whether the scheme under s.133C(3) has been superseded by a scheme notified under s.135A was not established and should be checked before advising on which machinery applies to a given notice. The text of Rule 12D as it stood before the 2019 substitution was not read, so nothing is said here about which authority was prescribed earlier. Whether a default on a s.133C notice attracts a penalty was not established: s.272A(2)(c), read on the department's page, names s.133 and not s.133C, and no provision naming s.133C was found, but the absence of a search result is not a finding that no penalty applies. This library shows the verification state of every entry openly. This entry has not yet been read in full by a chartered accountant. The summary reflects the sources listed on this page. Read the source before you rely on it in a reply to an Assessing Officer or in an appeal before the Commissioner (Appeals) or the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal.
The statutory position is as follows. Section 133C(1) confers the power on the prescribed income-tax authority, and what it confers is a power of verification. The notice may be issued "for the purposes of verification of information in its possession relating to any person", and it is issued to that person. What may be required of him is that he furnish, on or before a date to be specified in the notice, information or documents verified in the manner specified in it, "which may be useful for, or relevant to, any inquiry or proceeding under this Act". Rule 12D prescribes the authority: an income-tax authority not below the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Income-tax who has been authorised by the Central Board of Direct Taxes to act as such authority for the purposes of that section. Section 133C(2), as substituted by Act No. 38 of 2020 with effect from 1 November 2020, provides that where any information or document has been received in response to a notice issued under sub-section (1), the prescribed income-tax authority may process and utilise it in accordance with the scheme notified under sub-section (3) or the provisions of s.135A. Section 133C(3) empowers the Board to make a scheme for centralised issuance of notice and for processing of information or documents and making available the outcome of the processing to the Assessing Officer. Section 133C(4), inserted by the same Act with effect from the same date, provides that the scheme made under sub-section (3) shall cease to have effect from the date on which the scheme notified under s.135A in respect of this section comes into effect. The section ends there. It carries no proviso. Nothing in it conditions the issue of a notice on the approval of any higher authority; nothing in it turns on whether a proceeding is pending against the person served; and the second proviso to s.133 - which provides that the power in respect of an inquiry, in a case where no proceeding is pending, shall not be exercised by any income-tax authority below the rank of Director or Commissioner without the prior approval of the Director or the Commissioner - is a proviso to s.133 and governs the s.133(6) power. It does not govern this route.
TaxSphere, “s.133C and Rule 12D - the electronic route to calling for information”, https://taxnotice.vittsphere.com/caselaw/case/section-133c-rule-12d-prescribed-income-tax-authority/ (validity last checked 2026-09-17)
The judgment itself is a government work and may be quoted freely. The summary, the validity note and the reasoning on this page are this library's own writing: quote them with attribution, and please do not present either as the words of the court — this page keeps the two apart and so should a quotation of it.
Every entry in this library links to where it was found, so you can check it yourself rather than take our word for it.
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