Section 144BA(21)

Section 144BA(21) — the law in short

What the courts have decided on section 144BA(21), in one screen. Read this first; open an entry when you need the facts, the reasoning and the source.

• Statutory position — s.144BA(15) to (21) and the Explanation: who sits on the Approving Panel, the powers it borrows from the Advance Rulings Authority, and the two things that stop its six-month clock CBDT Circulars & InstructionsCuts both ways
  My case is going to the Approving Panel. Who actually sits on it, what powers does it have over me, how long is its term, and can the six months it has to decide be extended?
  The Approving Panel is not a departmental committee. By s.144BA(15) the CENTRAL GOVERNMENT constitutes one or more Panels, each of three members including a Chairperson, and by s.144BA(16) "the Chairperson of the Approving Panel shall be a person who is or has been a judge of a High Court", with one member from the Indian Revenue Service not below the rank of Principal Chief Commissioner or Chief Commissioner of Income-tax and one member "an academic or scholar having special knowledge of matters, such as direct taxes, business accounts and international trade practices". By s.144BA(19) the Panel has, in addition to its own powers, "the powers which are vested in the Authority for Advance Rulings under section 245U". Its term is ordinarily one year, extendable up to three years (s.144BA(17)). The six-month period in s.144BA(13) is subject to an Explanation that excludes two things — time taken on an exchange-of-information reference under s.90 or s.90A, capped at one year, and any period during which the Panel's proceeding is stayed by a court order or injunction — with a proviso that if fewer than sixty days remain after that exclusion, the period is extended to sixty days.

Listed strongest first: Supreme Court, then High Court, then Tribunal, then CBDT. Nothing here has yet been read in full by a chartered accountant — open an entry to see where it came from.