CHAPTER XVI — SPECIAL PROVISIONS APPLICABLE TO FIRMS
CHAPTER XVI — SPECIAL PROVISIONS APPLICABLE TO FIRMS
Section 189A — Provisions applicable to past assessments of firms
Case Laws & Commentary · Income-tax Act, 1961 (as amended by the Finance Act, 2026) · bharattax.co Treatise
Status: Live but transitional/spent in practical effect. Inserted by the Finance Act, 1992, w.e.f. 1 April 1993, as the saving provision for the old firm-taxation regime.
Finance Act, 2026: No change.
Successor (ITA 2025): A like saving for past assessments; of historical importance only.
A. SECTION COMMENTARY
1. The saving
Section 189A is the bridge between the old and the new schemes. It provides that, in relation to the assessment of any firm and its partners for the assessment year commencing on 1 April 1992 or any earlier year, the provisions of Chapter XVI as they stood immediately before 1 April 1993 shall continue to apply. In other words, the old registered/unregistered-firm regime — including old sections 182, 183, 184, 185 and 186 — governs all those past years, even though the substantive provisions were omitted from 1 April 1993.
2. Purpose and present effect
The provision protects accrued rights and pending matters: an appeal, rectification, reassessment, set-aside-and-remand, or recovery proceeding relating to assessment year 1992-93 or earlier is to be decided under the old law, notwithstanding the omission of the old provisions by the Finance Act, 1992. Given the lapse of time, very few such matters now survive; the section is therefore largely spent in practice, but it remains the formal authority for applying the old Chapter to any residual pre-1993 proceeding and for understanding why the pre-1993 jurisprudence remains good law for those years.
3. How it is used
Where a stray pre-1993 matter does arise, section 189A directs the authority to the old text and the old case-law — for example, the registration jurisprudence under old sections 184-186 and section 26A of the 1922 Act (R.C. Mitter & Sons, Mandyala Govindu & Co., K.D. Kamath & Co.) and the old assessment/penalty decisions (S.V. Angidi Chettiar, Shivram Poddar). The section is interpretive rather than charging; it has not itself been the subject of independent litigation.
B. STATUTORY POSITION (verbatim text)
The text of section 189A, as it stands in the Act, is set out below.
189A. In relation to the assessment of any firm and its partners for the assessment year commencing on the 1st day of April, 1992, or any earlier assessment year, the provisions of this Chapter as they stood immediately before the 1st day of April, 1993, shall continue to apply.
C. AUTHORITIES
Section 189A is a saving/transitional provision and has produced no independent jurisprudence; its function is to keep the pre-1993 law alive for past years. The position is stated candidly. The decisions it routes one to are those collected under sections 182-186 and 189 above.
Cluster 1 — The preserved old-regime jurisprudence (by reference)
Section 189A applies the old Chapter to pre-1993 years; the relevant authorities are the registration and assessment decisions of that era.
R.C. Mitter & Sons v. CIT (1959) 36 ITR 194 (SC); Mandyala Govindu & Co. v. CIT (1976) 102 ITR 1 (SC); K.D. Kamath & Co. v. CIT (1971) 82 ITR 680 (SC)
Application: For any surviving pre-1993 assessment, the conditions and consequences of registration are governed by these decisions (instrument of partnership; specified shares; genuineness), as the old Chapter continues to apply by force of section 189A.
Court / status: Supreme Court; preserved as good law for pre-1993 years.
CIT v. S.V. Angidi Chettiar (1962) 44 ITR 739 (SC); Shivram Poddar v. ITO (1964) 51 ITR 823 (SC)
Application: For penalty and assessment in surviving pre-1993 matters of dissolved/discontinued firms, the old principles (survival of liability; satisfaction before conclusion) continue to apply.
Candour: Section 189A itself has not been judicially construed; it is a saving provision whose office is to apply the pre-1993 law to past years.
Court / status: Supreme Court; preserved.
Compiled for the bharattax.co Treatise on the Income-tax Act, 1961 (as amended by the Finance Act, 2026). Statutory text is reproduced from the Income-tax Act, 1961 (local Act print, base text amended up to the Finance Act, 2025), with the publisher's footnote apparatus and amendment-marker brackets removed; no statutory word has been altered. The new scheme of firm taxation (firm as a separate taxable entity, abolition of registration) operates from assessment year 1993-94; sections 182, 183 and 186 stand omitted by the Finance Act, 1992, w.e.f. 1-4-1993. The Finance Act, 2026 makes no amendment to any section of Chapter XVI. Citations are stated as reported; orders of the Tribunal and High Courts are flagged as such. Where a section has not been judicially construed on its own terms, that is stated candidly and the nearest governing authority is given. This material is for professional reference and is not legal advice.
CHAPTER XVI — SPECIAL PROVISIONS APPLICABLE TO FIRMS
Section 189A — Provisions applicable to past assessments of firms
Case Laws & Commentary · Income-tax Act, 1961 (as amended by the Finance Act, 2026) · bharattax.co Treatise
Status: Live but transitional/spent in practical effect. Inserted by the Finance Act, 1992, w.e.f. 1 April 1993, as the saving provision for the old firm-taxation regime.
Finance Act, 2026: No change.
Successor (ITA 2025): A like saving for past assessments; of historical importance only.
A. SECTION COMMENTARY
1. The saving
Section 189A is the bridge between the old and the new schemes. It provides that, in relation to the assessment of any firm and its partners for the assessment year commencing on 1 April 1992 or any earlier year, the provisions of Chapter XVI as they stood immediately before 1 April 1993 shall continue to apply. In other words, the old registered/unregistered-firm regime — including old sections 182, 183, 184, 185 and 186 — governs all those past years, even though the substantive provisions were omitted from 1 April 1993.
2. Purpose and present effect
The provision protects accrued rights and pending matters: an appeal, rectification, reassessment, set-aside-and-remand, or recovery proceeding relating to assessment year 1992-93 or earlier is to be decided under the old law, notwithstanding the omission of the old provisions by the Finance Act, 1992. Given the lapse of time, very few such matters now survive; the section is therefore largely spent in practice, but it remains the formal authority for applying the old Chapter to any residual pre-1993 proceeding and for understanding why the pre-1993 jurisprudence remains good law for those years.
3. How it is used
Where a stray pre-1993 matter does arise, section 189A directs the authority to the old text and the old case-law — for example, the registration jurisprudence under old sections 184-186 and section 26A of the 1922 Act (R.C. Mitter & Sons, Mandyala Govindu & Co., K.D. Kamath & Co.) and the old assessment/penalty decisions (S.V. Angidi Chettiar, Shivram Poddar). The section is interpretive rather than charging; it has not itself been the subject of independent litigation.
B. STATUTORY POSITION (verbatim text)
The text of section 189A, as it stands in the Act, is set out below.
189A. In relation to the assessment of any firm and its partners for the assessment year commencing on the 1st day of April, 1992, or any earlier assessment year, the provisions of this Chapter as they stood immediately before the 1st day of April, 1993, shall continue to apply.
C. AUTHORITIES
Section 189A is a saving/transitional provision and has produced no independent jurisprudence; its function is to keep the pre-1993 law alive for past years. The position is stated candidly. The decisions it routes one to are those collected under sections 182-186 and 189 above.
Cluster 1 — The preserved old-regime jurisprudence (by reference)
Section 189A applies the old Chapter to pre-1993 years; the relevant authorities are the registration and assessment decisions of that era.
R.C. Mitter & Sons v. CIT (1959) 36 ITR 194 (SC); Mandyala Govindu & Co. v. CIT (1976) 102 ITR 1 (SC); K.D. Kamath & Co. v. CIT (1971) 82 ITR 680 (SC)
Application: For any surviving pre-1993 assessment, the conditions and consequences of registration are governed by these decisions (instrument of partnership; specified shares; genuineness), as the old Chapter continues to apply by force of section 189A.
Court / status: Supreme Court; preserved as good law for pre-1993 years.
CIT v. S.V. Angidi Chettiar (1962) 44 ITR 739 (SC); Shivram Poddar v. ITO (1964) 51 ITR 823 (SC)
Application: For penalty and assessment in surviving pre-1993 matters of dissolved/discontinued firms, the old principles (survival of liability; satisfaction before conclusion) continue to apply.
Candour: Section 189A itself has not been judicially construed; it is a saving provision whose office is to apply the pre-1993 law to past years.
Court / status: Supreme Court; preserved.
Compiled for the bharattax.co Treatise on the Income-tax Act, 1961 (as amended by the Finance Act, 2026). Statutory text is reproduced from the Income-tax Act, 1961 (local Act print, base text amended up to the Finance Act, 2025), with the publisher's footnote apparatus and amendment-marker brackets removed; no statutory word has been altered. The new scheme of firm taxation (firm as a separate taxable entity, abolition of registration) operates from assessment year 1993-94; sections 182, 183 and 186 stand omitted by the Finance Act, 1992, w.e.f. 1-4-1993. The Finance Act, 2026 makes no amendment to any section of Chapter XVI. Citations are stated as reported; orders of the Tribunal and High Courts are flagged as such. Where a section has not been judicially construed on its own terms, that is stated candidly and the nearest governing authority is given. This material is for professional reference and is not legal advice.