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Case law › Circulars › 1992 › Circular No. 639
CBDT circular 13 November 1992

Circular No. 639

797. Where last day for filing of income/loss return is a day on which income-tax office is closed, assessee can file return on next day afterwards on which office is open and return will be considered to have been filed within specified time limit

What this is

Circular No. 639 was issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes on 13 November 1992. Its subject is 797. Where last day for filing of income/loss return is a day on which income-tax office is closed, assessee can file return on next day afterwards on which office is open and return will be considered to have been filed within specified time limit.

What it does

Confirms that a return may be filed on the next day the income-tax office is open when the last day falls on a holiday, and is then in time. The Board, advised in consultation with the Ministry of Law, applies section 10 of the General Clauses Act, 1897, under which an act directed to be done in a court or office on a certain day or within a prescribed period is done in due time if the office is closed on that day and the act is done on the next day the office is open. So where the last day for filing a return of income or of loss is a day the office is closed, the return filed on the next working day is treated as filed within the statutory time limit. The clarification applies to returns under the other direct tax enactments as well.

Why it was issued

Representations were received asking whether a return filed on the working day following a holiday could be claimed to be within the statutory time limit.

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.10s.11, s.19

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.

797. Where last day for filing of income/loss return is a day on which income-tax office is closed, assessee can file return on next day afterwards on which office is open and return will be considered to have been filed within specified time limit
1. Representations have been received by the Board seeking clari­fications as to whether, the assessee could file a return of income/loss under the Income-tax Act, 1961 on the next working day following a holiday and claim it to have been filed within the statu­tory time limit.
2. The matter has been examined in consultation with the Ministry of Law and the Board are advised that, in such cases, section 10 of the General Clauses Act, 1897 will be applicable. According to this section, where any act or proceeding is directed or allowed to be done or taken in any court or office on a certain day or within a prescribed period, then, if the Court or office is closed on that day or the last day of the prescribed period, the act or proceeding shall be considered as done or taken in due time if it is done or taken on the next day afterwards on which the court or office is open.
3. In view of the above, it is hereby clarified that where the last day for filing return of income/loss is a day on which the office is closed, the assessee can file the return on the next day afterwards on which the office is open and, in such cases, the return will be considered to have been filed within the specified time limit.
4. This clarification also applied to the returns under other direct tax enactments.
Circular : No. 639, dated 13-11-1992.

What to watch

Where you meet it

In a dispute over interest for late filing or over carry forward of a loss where the return was filed the day after a holiday.

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. 640  ·  Circular No. 638 →

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.