Rule 63 — Prescribed authority for approval of a University or any educational institution of national eminence for purposes of section 133. Made under s.133 of the Income-tax Act, 2025.
Rule 63 gives effect to Section 133 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 names the authority that approves a University or an educational institution of national eminence, and the body whose concurrence that authority needs.
Sub-rule (1) prescribes, for the purposes of section 133(1)(a)(vii), the Principal Chief Commissioner of Income-tax (Exemptions) as the authority for granting approval. Sub-rule (2) requires the prescribed authority to grant approval with the concurrence of the Secretary, University Grants Commission for a University or any non-technical institution of national eminence, and of the Secretary, All India Council of Technical Education for any technical institution of national eminence. Sub-rule (3) defines the two bodies by reference to their constituting statutes: the All India Council of Technical Education established under section 3 of the All India Council for Technical Education Act, 1987, and the University Grants Commission established under section 4 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956.
Section 133(1)(a)(vii) turns on an approval but leaves the approving authority to be prescribed. The rule fills that gap and adds a second, non-tax check: whether an institution is of national eminence is an academic judgment the income-tax authority is not equipped to make alone, so concurrence is required from the regulator of the relevant sector — the University Grants Commission for universities and non-technical institutions, the All India Council of Technical Education for technical ones.
Approval is not in the gift of the income-tax authority alone: sub-rule (2) says the prescribed authority shall grant approval with the concurrence of the named Secretary, so without that concurrence there is no approval to grant. Which Secretary is asked turns on the character of the institution, not on what it calls itself — a technical institution goes to the All India Council of Technical Education, and a University or any non-technical institution to the University Grants Commission. The rule settles who decides and with whose agreement; the consequences of approval are entirely a matter for section 133.
A technical institution applies for approval for the purposes of section 133(1)(a)(vii). The application is dealt with by the Principal Chief Commissioner of Income-tax (Exemptions) under sub-rule (1), who obtains the concurrence of the Secretary, All India Council of Technical Education under sub-rule (2)(b) before granting approval. Had the applicant been a University, the concurrence required would have been that of the Secretary, University Grants Commission under sub-rule (2)(a).
An institution meets it in the approval file — the application to the Principal Chief Commissioner of Income-tax (Exemptions) and the concurrence obtained from the relevant Secretary; a donor or a taxpayer relying on section 133 meets only the approval order that results.
the prescribed authority for granting of approval shall be the Principal Chief Commissioner of Income- tax (Exemptions)
The prescribed authority shall grant approval with the concurrence of