Notification: 21 Date of Issue : 4/2/2002 — Amendment of the Income-tax Rules under section 44AA of the Income-tax Act, 1961

What this is

Notification: 21 Date of Issue : 4/2/2002 was published on 4 February 2002. Its subject is Amendment of the Income-tax Rules under section 44AA of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

This amends the Income-tax Rules. What it changes is the Rules, not the Act — and a rule can never take away what the section gives.

What it does

The Central Board of Direct Taxes, in exercise of the powers conferred by section 295 read with sub-section (4) of section 44AA of the Income-tax Act, 1961, makes the Income-tax (First Amendment) Rules, 2002, amending sub-rule (5) of rule 6F of the Income-tax Rules, 1962. The words "six years" are substituted for "eight years" as the period for which the books of account and documents prescribed by rule 6F are to be kept; the first proviso to that sub-rule is omitted; and in the second proviso the word "provided" is substituted for the words "provided further", so that the remaining proviso stands as the only one.

Who it reaches

persons carrying on the professions to which rule 6F applies and who must keep the prescribed books of account
assessing officers calling for books of account in assessment or reassessment proceedings

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.44AA	s.58, s.62
s.295	s.533

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.

Notification No : 21

Date of Issue : 4/2/2002

Section(s) Referred : s. 295

Notification No. S.O.... dated, 4th February, 2002.

In exercise of the powers conferred by section 295, read with sub-section (4) of section 44AA of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961), the Central Board of Direct Taxes hereby makes the following rules further to amend the Incometax Rules, 1962, namely:

1. (1) These rules may be called the Income-tax (First Amendment) Rules, 2002.

(2) They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

2. In the Income-tax Rules, 1962, in sub-rule (5) of rule 6F,--

(a) for the words "eight years", the words "six years" shall be substituted;

(b) the first proviso shall be omitted;

(c) in the second proviso, for the words "provided further", the word "provided" shall be substituted.

(Sd.) Deepika Mittal,

Under Secretary to the Government of India.

[Notification No. 21/2002-F.No. 142/3/2002-TPL]

What it changes

The rule numbers are the 1962 Rules’ own, as the notification names them. The right-hand column is the department’s own mapping into the Income-tax Rules, 2026, which renumbered nearly everything.

Rule of the 1962 Rules	Now, in the 2026 Rules
Rule 6F	rule 46

From when

the date of publication in the Official Gazette.

What to watch

The rules come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.
The retention period for the prescribed books and documents falls from eight years to six years.
The omission of the first proviso removes whatever exception it made; the text in hand does not set out what that proviso said, and it must be read from the rule as it stood.
The renumbering of the second proviso to a sole proviso is consequential on that omission.

Where you meet it

When books of account are called for in an assessment or reassessment and the question is how far back the professional was bound to keep them.

What it names

Rules it names. Rule 6F of the Income-tax Rules, 1962. The 1962 Rules were replaced by the Income-tax Rules, 2026, which renumbered nearly everything: a rule number quoted here almost never means the same rule today.

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.

Notification No. 92 — Section 120 (1) and (2) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 - Income-tax authorities - Jurisdiction of – Amendment in Notificati 8 December 2009
Notification No. 06 — A notification under section 44AA of the Income-tax Act, 1961 8 January 2004
Notification No. 30 — In Schedule-I, to the said notification for serial numbers 67, 74, 207, 208, 209, 210 and 211, and the entries relating 4 February 2003
Notification No. 385E- — Profession of information technology notified under section 44AA 4 May 2001
Circular No. 3 — 414. Filing of Audit Report under sections 44AD(6), 44AE(7) and 44AF(5) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, for the assessment 9 February 2001
Circular No. 714 — 1118. Clarification regarding applicability of section 194C/194J in case of advertising agency 3 August 1995

← Notification: 22 Date of Issue : 4/2/2002 · Notification: 12 Date of Issue : 31/1/2002 →

What a notification is. A notification is made under a power the Act itself gives, and within that power it is law — unlike a circular, which only binds the department. Its reach is the reach of the enabling provision and no wider, and the date it carries decides from when it works.

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