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Case law › Circulars › 1984 › Circular No. 402
CBDT circular 1 December 1984

Circular No. 402

Revision by the Commissioner

What this is

Circular No. 402 was issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes on 1 December 1984. Its subject is Revision by the Commissioner.

What it does

Guides Commissioners on limitation for revision under section 263 after section 47 of the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Act, 1984 amended that section. The Board accepts that on general principles of statutory interpretation the limitation stands extended where the original period had not expired before 1-10-1984. But to avoid controversy and litigation it directs that, as far as possible, an order under section 263 be passed within two years of the date of the order sought to be revised where that order was passed before 1-10-1984.

Why it was issued

The amendment raised the question whether the longer limitation could be applied to orders passed before it came into force, and the Board wished to keep that question out of litigation.

Who it reaches

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 ActNow
s.47s.2, s.70
s.263s.377

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.

REVISION BY THE COMMISSIONER
SECTION 263 l REVISION OF ORDERS PREJUDICIAL TO REVENUE
1263. Orders under sub-section (2), inserted by Taxation Laws (Amendment) Act, 1984, are to be passed within two years of the date of orders sought to be revised in cases where order sought to be revised was passed before October 1, 1984
As a consequence of the amendment of section 263, by section 47 of the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Act, 1984, the limitation for passing an order under section 263 will, in view of general principles of interpretation of statutes, stand extended in cases where the period of limitation originally laid down in that section had not expired before October 1, 1984. However, with a view to avoiding controversy and litigation in the matter. It is desirable that orders under section 263 are passed, as far as possible, within two years of the date of the order sought to be revised in cases where the order sought to be revised was passed before October 1, 1984.
Circular : No. 402 [F. No. 279/146/84-ITJ], dated 1-12-1984.

What to watch

Where you meet it

On a limitation objection to a section 263 order revising an old assessment.

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. 403  ·  Circular No. 401 →

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.