Revision by Commissioner under Income Tax Act 1961

REVISION BY COMMISSIONER

1. Revision of orders Prejudicial to Revenue:

Section 263 of the Act gives powers to Chief Commissioner or Commissioner to review any orders passed by Assessing Officer and to pass such orders thereon as the circumstances of the case justify, While passing such orders he may enhance, cancel or modify an assessment or he may order a fresh assessment. The assessee has to be provided an opportunity of being heard in this case.

No order shall be made under this section after the expiry of two years from the end of financial year in which the order sought to be revised was passed.

                            But under section 263(3) an order of revision may be passed at any time in the case of an order which has been passed in the light of any finding or direction contained in an order of the Appellate Tribunal, High Court or the Supreme Court. Under this section, the Commissioner has been armed with the power of revising an order of the Assessing Officer primarily because the department has no right of appeal to the Deputy Commissioner against the orders passed by the Assessing Officer.

                              The important point to be noted in this connection is that the commissioner must have gathered necessary information to show that the assessment order passed by the Assessing Officer has been erroneously passed and is prejudicial to the revenue as well. The commissioner can exercise his revisional power only if the original order is not appealable or if appealable, the assessee has either waived his rights of appeal already or the appeal has become time bounded.

2. Revision of other orders:

Under the provisions of section 264 in case of any order, other than that to which section 263 applies, passed by authority subordinate to him, the commissioner may either of his own motion or on application by the assessee for revision, call for the record of any proceedings, under the Act in which any such order has been passed and make such inquiries and orders thereon as he thinks fit. These orders cannot be prejudicial to the assessee.

         In this case the revision proceedings can be started by the commissioner of his own motion within one year of the passing of the order sought to be revised. If the assessee wants revisions of any order, the application accompanied by a fee of Rs 500 only from 1-06-2001 must be made within one year of the date on which the order in question was communicated to him or the date on which he otherwise comes to know of it, whichever is earlier.

The commissioner shall not revise any order under this section in the following circumstances:

1. where an appeal against the order lies to the deputy commissioner or to the Appellate Tribunal or it has not been made and the time for its making has not expired or in the case of an appeal to the tribunal, the assessee has not waived his right of appeal

2. Where the order is pending on an appeal before the Deputy Commissioner (Appeals)

3. Where an appeals has been made to Appellate Tribunal against the order

An appeal can be made by an assessee to the Tribunal against the order U/s 263 but no appeal can be made against the order U/s 264