s.133(6) — Power to call for information

Currently operative

The text set out here is the Year 2022 edition, which carries three provisos; a later edition should be checked before the list of authorities in sub-section (1) is relied on, because that list has been amended as the appellate hierarchy changed.

Income-tax Act, 1961

s.133(6)

Income-tax Act, 2025

s.252(1)(a)

In force from 1 April 2026, but s.536(2)(c) preserves the 1961 Act for tax years beginning before that date.

In short

Section 133 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 lets the Assessing Officer, the Deputy Commissioner (Appeals), the Joint Commissioner or the Commissioner (Appeals) call for information. Clause (6) is the broad limb: it allows any person, including a banking company or any officer of one, to be required to furnish information in relation to such points or matters, or to furnish statements of accounts and affairs, which in the authority's opinion will be useful for, or relevant to, any enquiry or proceeding under the Act. Three provisos follow the clauses. The first extends the clause (6) power beyond the authorities named in the section, to the Principal Director General or Director-General, the Principal Chief Commissioner or Chief Commissioner, the Principal Director or Director, the Principal Commissioner or Commissioner, and the Joint Director, Deputy Director or Assistant Director. The second is the taxpayer's provision: where no proceeding is pending, the power may not be exercised by an authority below the rank of Principal Director or Director or Principal Commissioner or Commissioner, other than the Joint, Deputy or Assistant Director, without the prior approval of the Principal Director or Director or the Principal Commissioner or Commissioner. The practical effect is that the Assessing Officer, who issues most of these notices, needs that approval when nothing is pending. The third allows an authority notified under section 131(2) to exercise the powers for the purposes of an agreement under section 90 or 90A even where nothing is pending. The corresponding provision in the Income-tax Act, 2025 is section 252(1)(a), in Chapter XIV, with the approval condition at section 252(3)(a) and the treaty limb at section 252(3)(b).

What the provision does

Supplies an enquiry power exercisable against any person, the assessee included as well as banks and counterparties, and conditions it on prior approval where no proceeding is pending. It is keyed to points or matters the authority considers useful or relevant rather than to records at large, does not make the information gathered evidence of anything, and says nothing about giving the assessee the material or an opportunity to answer it.

Threshold questions

Whether a proceeding was pending when the notice was issued, since that decides whether the approval condition applies at all
Whether the notice is addressed to the assessee himself, since the second proviso draws no distinction between a notice to the assessee and one to a third party, and the approval condition is the more often overlooked on the first
If none was pending, whether the authority issuing the notice is one the second proviso excepts, and if not whether the prior approval it requires was obtained from an officer of the right rank
Whether the notice identifies the points or matters to which the information is said to be useful or relevant, rather than calling for records at large
Whether the notice issued from the jurisdictional authority or through the centralised information-gathering machinery, since that decides who the reply goes to and whether the approval the second proviso requires can be tested at all
Whether the information gathered was put to the assessee before being used against him, which the section does not require and which the order will have to justify if it was not done
Which Act governs the enquiry, since from 1 April 2026 the power is section 252 of the Income-tax Act, 2025

The recurring disputes.

Whether approval can be inferred or supplied later

The second proviso makes prior approval a condition of exercising the power where nothing is pending. The taxpayer's argument is that "prior" means before, that the file must show the approving authority applied its mind, and that an approval produced afterwards or recorded as a one-line endorsement is no approval at all. The Revenue's argument is that the proviso protects against misuse of a purely administrative enquiry power, that no particular form is prescribed, and that an irregularity in an internal approval does not invalidate information that is otherwise genuine. What standard of approval this proviso requires, and whether a defective one goes to the power or only to procedure, has not been settled.

An approval the assessee cannot see, on a notice from a unit he cannot identify

Where the notice issues through centralised information-gathering machinery rather than from the jurisdictional officer, the taxpayer's argument is that the condition presupposes an identified officer and an identified approver, that he cannot tell whether an approval was given, by whom or on what material, and that a safeguard he has no means of testing is not a safeguard. The Revenue's argument is that the approval is recorded on the file whether or not the recipient is shown it, that the proviso protects against misuse within the Department rather than conferring a right of inspection, and that the identity of the issuing unit goes to form and not to power. Whether a recipient is entitled to be shown the approval, and what follows if it is not produced when asked for, has not been decided.

Whether information gathered under clause (6) can found a reassessment

Material collected under clause (6) frequently becomes the basis of a notice reopening an assessment. The taxpayer's argument is that an enquiry conducted without a pending proceeding and without the approval the proviso requires is an enquiry the officer had no power to make, so the material is not information on which a belief can lawfully be formed. The Revenue's argument is that the validity of the reopening depends on the information and not on the regularity of the route by which it arrived, and that the Act contains no exclusionary rule. Whether an enquiry made without the approval taints the material it produced, or whether the irregularity and the validity of the reopening are separate questions, has not been settled.

How far a clause (6) notice may range

The clause is keyed to information in relation to such points or matters as will be useful for or relevant to an enquiry or proceeding. The taxpayer's argument is that those words require the notice to identify the points or matters, so a demand for all records of all transactions over a period is outside the power. The Revenue's argument is that relevance is judged by the officer, that the words "useful for" are deliberately wider than "necessary", and that an enquiry power confined to matters already identified would be useless at the enquiry stage. The balance has not been settled for this clause.

Frequently asked.

Can the Department ask my bank for information without telling me?

Section 133(6) allows a banking company or any officer of one to be required to furnish information or statements of accounts and affairs, and nothing in the section requires notice to the account holder. Where no proceeding is pending, the second proviso requires the prior approval of the Principal Director or Director or the Principal Commissioner or Commissioner before most authorities, including the Assessing Officer, may exercise the power.

Does section 133(6) apply when no assessment is pending?

Yes, but conditionally. The second proviso permits an enquiry where no proceeding is pending only with the prior approval of the Principal Director or Director or the Principal Commissioner or Commissioner, and excepts the Joint Director, Deputy Director and Assistant Director from the rank restriction. Whether approval was in fact obtained is the first thing to check.

What happens if a section 133(6) notice is not answered?

The section itself prescribes no consequence. Section 272A(2)(c) penalises a failure to furnish in due time any of the returns, statements or particulars mentioned in section 133, so a notice calling for statements of accounts and affairs is squarely within it; whether a call for information at large under the first limb of clause (6) answers the description of a return, statement or particular is a question the clause leaves open. The penalty reaches a third party such as a bank or a counterparty as well as the assessee whose affairs are under enquiry. The practical point is separate: the same information can usually be obtained from the other side of the transaction and then used without the recipient's version of it, which is the reason to answer rather than ignore.

Where is section 133(6) in the Income-tax Act, 2025?

Section 252(1)(a), in Chapter XIV. The prior approval condition where no proceeding is pending moves to section 252(3)(a), and the limb allowing the power to be used for the purposes of a treaty, even with nothing pending, to section 252(3)(b).