Circular No. 24/2019

What it does

Issues the Board's procedure for identifying and processing cases for prosecution under the direct tax laws, replacing the guidance the Board had been giving from time to time, so that the object behind Chapter XXII of the Act is met and any doubt about the intention to take up serious cases effectively is removed. The part of the circular before me sets the frame rather than the machinery: prosecution is a criminal proceeding, so on the evidence gathered the offence, as defined in the relevant provision of the Act, has to be proved beyond reasonable doubt.

Why it was issued

The Board wanted to streamline how cases for prosecution are identified and examined, to serve the object of Chapter XXII and to remove doubt about its intention to address serious cases effectively.

Who it reaches

Assessees under consideration for prosecution under Chapter XXII
Assessees facing a sanction proposal for an offence under the Act
Assessing Officers and Commissioners processing prosecution cases

The instrument, as the Board published it

The department publishes this one only as a PDF, so the words below were read out of that PDF by machine. That reading can carry its own mistakes — a misread number, a broken line. Check the signed document before you rely on a figure in it. The reading also stopped short of the end of the document: what is below is the opening, not the whole of it.

Circular No. 24/2019
F.No.285/08/2014-IT(Inv. V) 13u...o"
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
(Central Board of Direct Taxes)

Room No. 515, 5th Floor, C-Block,
Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Civic Centre,
Minto Road, New Delhi -110002.
Dated: 09.09.2019

Subject: Procedure for identification and processing of cases for prosecution under Direct Tax Laws-reg.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes has been issuing guide lines from time to time for streamlining the procedure of identifying and examining the cases for initiating prosecution for offences under Direct Tax Laws. With a view to achieve the objective behind enactment of Chapter XXII of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (the Act), and to remove any doubts on the intent to address serious cases effectively, this circular is issued.

2. Prosecution is a criminal proceeding. Therefore, based upon evidence gathered, offence and crime as defined in the relevant provision of the Act, the offence has to be proved beyond reasonable doubt.

What to watch

The copy before me ends after the second paragraph, so the identification criteria, the thresholds and the sanction procedure - the working part of the circular - are not in it and must be read from the published text.
What the copy does establish is the standard the Board itself accepts: prosecution is criminal, and the offence must be proved beyond reasonable doubt on the evidence gathered.
It supersedes nothing expressly on the face of this copy, so its relation to the earlier guidance cannot be settled from what is before me.

Where you meet it

When a prosecution proposal or a sanction under Chapter XXII is being met, and the Board's own criteria for taking up a case are being tested.

What it names

It mentions. Circular No. 24/2019

← F.No. 279/Misc./M-93/2018-ITJ(Pt.) · Circular No. 25/2019 →

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.

What this is