Rule 193 — Form of appeal and memorandum of cross-objections to Appellate Tribunal under section 362. Made under s.362 of the Income-tax Act, 2025.
Rule 193 gives effect to Section 362 of the Income-tax Act, 2025. A rule cannot go beyond the section it serves: where the two seem to differ, the section governs.
The rule prescribes the forms for going to the Appellate Tribunal under section 362 and says who signs them. Sub-rule (1) requires an appeal under section 362(1) or (2) to be made in Form No. 115, and where the appeal is made by the assessee, the form of appeal, the grounds of appeal and the form of verification appended to it must be signed by the person specified in rule 167(3). Sub-rule (2) requires a memorandum of cross-objections under section 362(4) to be made in Form No. 116, and where the memorandum is made by the assessee, the memorandum, the grounds of cross-objections and the form of verification appended to it must be signed by the same person.
Section 362 gives the right of appeal and of cross-objection to the Appellate Tribunal but does not settle the paper. The rule fixes one form for each and, more importantly, fixes signature: an appeal is a formal act binding the assessee, so the rule points to the person specified in rule 167(3) rather than leaving it to whoever prepares the papers.
The signature requirement runs to three things in each case, not one: the form itself, the grounds, and the verification appended to it all bear the signature of the person specified in rule 167(3). That requirement is expressed to apply where the appeal or memorandum is made by the assessee, so it addresses the assessee's side; the forms themselves apply to an appeal or memorandum whoever brings it. A cross-objection is a separate filing in its own form, Form No. 116, and is not made by adding grounds to the other side's Form No. 115. Who may sign is settled by rule 167(3) and not by this rule, so an appeal signed by an authorised representative rather than by that person is defective on the face of it.
A company's appeal against an order is filed in Form No. 115, with the form, the grounds of appeal and the verification each signed by the person specified in rule 167(3) for a company. When the Department appeals separately, the company files its own cross-objections in Form No. 116, signed in the same way. Grounds added to the Department's appeal papers instead would not be a memorandum of cross-objections under sub-rule (2).
You meet it when an appeal or a cross-objection is prepared for the Appellate Tribunal, and at the registry, where an unsigned or wrongly signed form is taken up as a defect.
An appeal under section 362(1) or (2) to the Appellate Tribunal shall be made in Form No. 115
A memorandum of cross-objections under section 362(4) to the Appellate Tribunal shall be made in Form No. 116
