Circular No. 668 — 900. Clarification regarding date of limitation for filing appeals

What this is

Circular No. 668 was issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes on 20 October 1993. Its subject is 900. Clarification regarding date of limitation for filing appeals.

This is a clarification. The Board is stating how it reads a provision. That reading binds the department; it does not bind a court, and where the section says otherwise the section wins.

What it does

Fixes when the thirty days for appealing against an intimation under section 143(1) begins to run where the assessee has first moved the Assessing Officer for rectification. Under the proviso to section 154(2)(b), if the officer does not rectify within three months from the end of the month in which the mistake is brought to his notice, the assessee may appeal, sections 246 and 249 applying as if the intimation were an order. The Board directs that for section 249(2)(c) the intimation is deemed to have been served, for this limited purpose, on the day following the expiry of that three-month period, so the thirty days run from that day.

Why it was issued

References had been received asking on what date the time limit for filing an appeal expires in such cases.

Who it reaches

Assessees who applied for rectification of an intimation under section 143(1) and received no order
Commissioners (Appeals) deciding whether such an appeal is in time
Assessing Officers sitting on rectification applications

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.143	s.270
s.154	s.287
s.246	s.356
s.249	s.358

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.

900. Clarification regarding date of limitation for filing appeals
1. According to the provisions of section 249(2)(c) an appeal has to be presented within 30 days from the date of service of the order sought to be appealed against. Also, the proviso under section 154(2)(b ) provides that if the Assessing Officer does not rectify, within a period of three months from the end of the month in which a mistake in an intimation under section 143(1) is brought to his notice by the assessee, he may file an appeal and the provisions of sections 246 and 249 shall have effect as if the said intimation were an order for the purposes of these sections.
2. References have been received requesting for a clarification as to the date of expiry of the time limit for filing an appeal in such cases.
3. The matter has been considered by the Board. It has been decided that, for the purposes of section 249(2)(c), the intimation under section 143(1) should be deemed to have been served on the assessee (for this limited purpose) on the date following the expiry of the period of three months mentioned in the proviso under section 154(2)( b) and hence the limitation period of thirty days will start from that date.
Circular : No. 668, dated 20-10-1993.

What to watch

The deeming is for the limited purpose of computing limitation and does not turn the intimation into an order for any other purpose.
Time runs from the day after the three months expire, whether or not the officer eventually passes an order.
Count the three months from the end of the month in which the mistake was brought to notice, not from the date of the application.
Section 143(1) and section 154 have since been recast, so the mechanics described here belong to the provisions as they then stood.

Where you meet it

When a Commissioner (Appeals) raises a limitation objection to an appeal filed against an unrectified intimation under section 143(1).

An example

Ours, not the Board’s: a worked case built from the rule the instrument sets, to show how it falls out.

A mistake in an intimation is brought to the Assessing Officer's notice on 10 May. Three months from the end of May expire on 31 August. The intimation is deemed served on 1 September, and the appeal to the Commissioner (Appeals) must be filed within thirty days of that date.

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. 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
Notification No. 56/2022 [F.No. 225/91/2022/ITA-II] — [To BE Published in the Gazette of INDIA Part II section 3 Subsection (ii) Extraordinary] 28 May 2022
Circular No. 21/2021 — One time relaxation for verification of all income tax returns e filed for the assessment year 2020 21 which are pending 28 December 2021
Notification No. 25/2021 [F. No. 187/3/2020-ITA-I] / SO 1437(E) — New Delhi, the 31st March, 2021 31 March 2021
Notification No. 26/2021 [F. No. 370142/33/2020-TPL] / SO 1438(E) — Ministry of Finance 31 March 2021

← Circular No. 669 · Circular No. 667 →

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.