VoxJuris
Home › Acts › Income-tax Act, 1961 › Chapter XX › Section 261

Income-tax Act, 1961 · Chapter XX: Appeals and Revision · D.—Appeals to the Supreme Court

Section 261: Appeal to Supreme Court

The Income-tax Act, 1961 was repealed by the Income-tax Act, 2025 from 1 April 2026. The text is kept here because the judgments below apply it.

In plain words

An appeal lies to the Supreme Court from a High Court judgment on a reference under section 256, or on an appeal to the High Court, if the High Court certifies that the case is fit for appeal.

  • The High Court's certificate is the condition for appeal under this section.
  • Without a certificate, a party can still ask the Supreme Court for special leave to appeal under the Constitution.

A simplified explanation, prepared with AI assistance from the official text below and checked automatically against it for numbers and cross-references. The official text is the law and prevails over this summary. Not legal advice.

Official text

An appeal shall lie to the Supreme Court from any judgment of the High Court [delivered [before the establishment of the National Tax Tribunal] on a reference made under section 256 against an order made under section 254 before the 1st day of October, 1998 or an appeal made to High Court in respect of an order passed under section 254 on or after that date] in any case which the High Court certifies to be a fit one for appeal to the Supreme Court.

Source: India Code (Legislative Department), the text of the Act as it stood before its repeal. Words in square brackets [ ] were inserted or substituted by later amending Acts, and *** marks words omitted by an amendment. The amendment footnotes are not reproduced here. Official text on India Code.

Supreme Court judgments citing the section 261