Circular No. 73

902. Board’s authorisation for taking action under section 154 beyond time limit specified under section 154(7) in cases where valid application has been field under section 154(2)(b) but was not disposed of within the said time limit - Order under section 119(2)(a)

What this is

Circular No. 73 was issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes on 7 January 1972. Its subject is 902. Board’s authorisation for taking action under section 154 beyond time limit specified under section 154(7) in cases where valid application has been field under section 154(2)(b) but was not disposed of within the said time limit - Order under section 119(2)(a).

This is an order under section 119 of the 1961 Act — section 239 of the 2025 Act. Section 119 lets the Board give directions to its own officers and, in defined cases, relax a requirement. It is an administrative power, not a power to rewrite the charge.

What it does

An order under clause (a) of sub-section (2) of section 119 that saves rectification applications from being lost to limitation. Where an assessee filed a valid application under clause (b) of sub-section (2) of section 154 within the statutory time limit but the authority did not dispose of it within the period specified in sub-section (7) of section 154, the Board orders that the application may still be disposed of by that authority after the expiry of the statutory time limit, on merits and in accordance with law.

Why it was issued

Applications properly made by assessees were going undisposed of within the four corners of the section 154 time limit, and the Board used its section 119 power to let the authority deal with them all the same.

Who it reaches

Assessees whose rectification applications were not taken up in time
Income-tax authorities holding undisposed applications under section 154(2)(b)
Assessees pressing for effect to be given to an old rectification application

The provisions it speaks to

Left, the provision of the Income-tax Act, 1961 as the instrument itself names it. Right, the section of the Income-tax Act, 2025 that the department’s own concordance maps it to — which is where the same ground is now covered.

Under the 1961 Act	Now
s.119	s.239
s.154	s.287

The instrument, as the Board published it

The words below are the department’s own, reproduced from its published text. Where the department’s copy carried a publisher’s notes after the instrument, those are not reproduced.

902. Board’s authorisation for taking action under section 154 beyond time limit specified under section 154(7) in cases where valid application has been field under section 154(2)(b) but was not disposed of within the said time limit - Order under section 119(2)(a)
In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (a) of sub-section (2) of section 119, the Central Board of Direct Taxes hereby orders that in all the cases where a valid application under clause (b) of sub-section (2) of section 154 had been filed by the assessee within the statutory time limit but was not disposed of by the authority concerned with in the time specified under sub-section (7) of section 154, it may be disposed of by that authority even after the expiry of the statutory time limit, on merits and in accordance with law.
Circular : No. 73 [F.No. 245/13/71-A & PAC], dated 7-1-1972.

What to watch

The order saves only an application that was itself valid and filed within the statutory time limit; a late application gets no help from it.
It permits disposal after the limit; it does not direct that the application be allowed, which is still on merits and in accordance with law.
It does not extend the time for the authority to act suo motu under section 154.

Where you meet it

In pressing an Assessing Officer to dispose of a long-pending rectification application, and in a writ or grievance petition where the officer says he is out of time.

On the same provision

Other instruments in this library that name the same provision of the 1961 Act. They are not necessarily still operative, and a later one may have replaced an earlier one without saying so.

Circular No. 6/2026 — Condonation of delay in filing Form No. 10AB electronically for approval under clause(ii) of the first proviso to sectio 2 July 2026
Circular No. 2/2026 — Order under section 119 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 for extension of timeline for issuance of tax deducted at source (TD 25 March 2026
Circular No.15/2025 — Extension of timelines for filing of various reports of audit and income tax returns ITRS for the assessment year 2025 2 29 October 2025
Circular No. 10/2025 — Relaxation of time limit for processing of returns of income filed electronically which were incorrectly invalidated by 28 July 2025
Circular No. 7/2025 — Relaxation of time limit for processing of valid returns of income filed electronically pursuant to order u/s 119(2)(b) 25 June 2025
Circular No. 6/2025 — Extension of due date for furnishing return of income for the Assessment Year 2025-26 27 May 2025

← Circular No. 74 · Circular No. 72 →

A circular binds the department, not you and not a court. The Board issues a circular to its own officers. An assessee may hold the department to a circular that helps him; the department cannot hold an assessee to one that hurts him, and the Tribunal and the courts decide the law for themselves.

Source: the Income Tax Department’s own published text — its page for this instrument.