Rule 260 — Removal of name of authorised income-tax practitioner who is insolvent or on whom penalty has been imposed. Made under s.515 of the Income-tax Act, 2025.
Rule 260 gives effect to Section 515 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 deals with a name already entered in the register. Under clause (a) that name shall be removed from the register during the period for which the person is disqualified to represent an assessee in the circumstances referred to in section 515(4)(b) or (c). Under clause (b) it shall be re-entered only after the completion of that period.
The removal is tied to the period of disqualification and to nothing else; the rule provides no separate hearing, no discretion and no application for re-entry.
Section 515(4)(b) and (c) disqualify a person from representing an assessee in stated circumstances, but the register would still show him as an authorised income-tax practitioner unless something removed him. The rule keeps the register aligned with the disqualification: the name comes off for as long as the disqualification lasts, and goes back on when that period is complete, so the register neither outlives the disqualification nor extends it.
Both the removal and the restoration follow the period of disqualification, so the length of time off the register is not a separate punishment fixed by anyone: it is exactly the period for which section 515(4)(b) or (c) disqualifies the person. Clause (b) says the name shall be re-entered only after the completion of the period, so re-entry is not available early, and the rule does not put re-entry in the hands of a fresh discretion either. This is not the misconduct route; it operates on the circumstances stated in section 515(4)(b) or (c), among them insolvency and the imposition of a penalty as the heading indicates.
A person entered in the register becomes disqualified to represent an assessee in a circumstance referred to in section 515(4)(b) for a stated period. His name is removed from the register for the whole of that period under clause (a); an assessee cannot be represented by him meanwhile. When the period is complete, clause (b) allows the name to be re-entered, and not before.
An assessee meets it when a practitioner he has engaged is no longer on the register, and the practitioner meets it in the removal itself and in the re-entry after the period ends.
shall be removed from the register during the period for which he is disqualified to represent an assessee in the circumstances as referred to in section 515(4)(b) or (c)
shall be re-entered only after the completion of the period