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Income-tax Act, 1961 · Chapter XX: Appeals and Revision · E.—Revision by the Principal Commissioner or Commissioner

Section 264: Revision of other orders

The Income-tax Act, 1961 was repealed by the Income-tax Act, 2025 from 1 April 2026.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

The Principal Commissioner or Commissioner may revise any order of a subordinate authority, other than one covered by section 263, either on their own or on the assessee's application. The revision cannot be prejudicial to the assessee.

  • The Commissioner cannot revise on their own an order passed more than one year earlier.
  • The assessee must apply within one year of learning of the order, though delay may be condoned for sufficient cause.
  • Revision is not allowed where an appeal is pending, is still possible and not waived, or has been filed.
  • An application must be accompanied by a fee of five hundred rupees.

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

(1) In the case of any order other than an order to which section 263 applies passed by an authority subordinate to him, the [Principal Commissioner or Commissioner] may, either of his own motion or on an application by the assessee for revision, call for the record of any proceeding under this Act in which any such order has been passed and may make such inquiry or cause such inquiry to be made and, subject to the provisions of this Act, may pass such order thereon, not being an order prejudicial to the assessee, as he thinks fit.

(2) The [Principal Commissioner or Commissioner] shall not of his own motion revise any order under this section if the order has been made more than one year previously.

(3) In the case of an application for revision under this section by the assessee, the application must be made within one year from the date on which the order in question was communicated to him or the date on which he otherwise came to know of it, whichever is earlier:

Provided that the1[Principal Commissioner or Commissioner] may, if he is satisfied that the assessee was prevented by sufficient cause from making the application within that period, admit an application made after the expiry of that period.

(4) The [Principal Commissioner or Commissioner] shall not revise any order under this section in the following cases—

(a) where an appeal against the order lies to the [Deputy Commissioner (Appeals)][or to the Commissioner (Appeals)] or to the Appellate Tribunal but has not been made and the time within which such appeal may be made has not expired, or, in the case of an appeal [to the Commissioner (Appeals) or] to the Appellate Tribunal, the assessee has not waived his right of appeal; or

(b) where the order is pending on an appeal before the [Deputy Commissioner(Appeals)]; or

(c) where the order has been made the subject of an appeal [to the Commissioner (Appeals) or] to the Appellate Tribunal.

(5) Every application by an assessee for revision under this section shall be accompanied by [a fee of five hundred rupees]. [(6) On every application by an assessee for revision under this sub-section, made on or after the 1st day of October, 1998, an order shall be passed within one year from the end of the financial year in which such application is made by the assessee for revision.

Explanation.—In computing the period of limitation for the purposes of this sub-section, the time taken in giving an opportunity to the assessee to be re-heard under the proviso to section 129 and any period during which any proceeding under this section is stayed by an order or injunction of any court shall be excluded.

(7) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (6), an order in revision under sub-section (6) may be passed at any time in consequence of or to give effect to any finding or direction contained in an order of the Appellate Tribunal, [National Tax Tribunal,] the High Court or the Supreme Court.]

Explanation 1.—An order by the [Principal Commissioner or Commissioner] declining to interfere shall, for the purposes of this section, be deemed not to be an order prejudicial to the assessee.

Explanation 2.—For the purposes of this section, the [Deputy Commissioner (Appeals)] shall be deemed to be an authority subordinate to the [Principal Commissioner or Commissioner].

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 264