Section 245RR — Appellate Authority Not to Proceed in Certain Cases
Case Laws & Commentary · Income-tax Act, 1961 (as amended by the Finance Act, 2026) · bharattax.co Treatise
Provision: Inserted by the Finance Act, 2003 w.e.f. 1 June 2003. A stand-still provision: no income-tax authority and no Appellate Tribunal shall proceed to decide any issue in respect of which a resident applicant has made an application under s.245Q(1).
Status: No direct merits case law. Candour rule applied. The section is the mirror-image, for the resident applicant, of the s.245R(2)(i) “already pending” bar, and is best read with that jurisprudence.
A. SECTION COMMENTARY
1. Object — preventing a clash of forums for the resident applicant
Section 245RR addresses the converse of the s.245R(2)(i) admission bar. Whereas s.245R(2)(i) tells the Authority not to admit a question already pending before an income-tax authority, the Tribunal or a court, s.245RR tells the income-tax authorities and the Tribunal not to proceed to decide an issue once a resident applicant has filed an application before the Authority under s.245Q(1). Together they prevent two forums from deciding the same issue at the same time, and protect the integrity of the advance-ruling process for resident applicants (the class brought in by successive amendments and notifications).
2. Scope and limits
The stay operates only in respect of the issue on which the advance ruling is sought, and only while the application subsists; it does not freeze the assessment as a whole, nor does it bar the authorities from deciding unrelated issues. It is confined by its terms to a “resident” applicant. Because the provision is self-executing and narrowly drawn, it has generated no separate body of merits litigation; the contested questions about when an issue is or is not “pending” have been fought under s.245R(2)(i), to which the reader is referred.
3. Candour
There is no reported decision construing s.245RR on its merits. The governing jurisprudence is that on the cognate “already pending” bar in s.245R(2)(i) — Hyosung (SC), SAGE Publications (SC), Monte Harris and SEPCO III — collected under s.245R, Cluster 2. The cross-reference below is supplied in lieu of direct authority; no inapposite case is pressed into service.
B. STATUTORY POSITION (verbatim text)
The text of section 245RR, as it stands in the Act (Finance Act, 2025 base text), is set out below.
245RR. No income-tax authority or the Appellate Tribunal shall proceed to decide any issue in respect to which an application has been made by an applicant, being a resident, under sub-section (1) of section 245Q.
Editorial note: section 245RR was inserted by the Finance Act, 2003 w.e.f. 1 June 2003.
C. AUTHORITIES
Candour rule: there is no merits authority on s.245RR. It is the mirror of the s.245R(2)(i) bar; the cognate apex authorities under that bar govern the meaning of “pendency” and are cross-referenced below.
Cluster 1 — The cognate “already pending” line (cross-reference)
These authorities, fully noted under s.245R (Cluster 2), define when an issue is “pending” and therefore frame the operation of the s.245RR stand-still for resident applicants.
Held: Mere filing of a return / issue of a s.143(2) notice does not make a question “pending.”
Relevance: Defines the pendency concept that s.245RR mirrors for resident applicants.
SEPCO III Electric Power Construction Corpn, In re (2011) 340 ITR 225 (AAR) — cross-ref s.245R
Held: Pendency of a s.195/197 application or a s.263 revision is not a bar.
Relevance: Clarifies what proceedings do not engage the pendency/stand-still concept.
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 (text as printed in the local Act, base text amended up to the Finance Act, 2025), with the publisher's footnote apparatus and amendment-marker brackets removed; no statutory word is altered. Chapter XIX-B (Advance Rulings, ss.245N–245W) was inserted by the Finance Act, 1993; the Authority for Advance Rulings was replaced, for fresh income-tax applications, by the Board for Advance Rulings (s.245-OB, Finance Act, 2021), with a statutory appeal to the High Court (s.245W) and the e-Advance Rulings Scheme, 2022. The Finance Act, 2026 makes NO amendment to any section of Chapter XIX-B. Rulings of the Authority for Advance Rulings are cited as the natural body of jurisprudence on this Chapter; Supreme Court and High Court decisions are flagged as such; there is virtually no Income-tax Appellate Tribunal authority on Chapter XIX-B (advance-ruling disputes travel to the High Court/Supreme Court, not the Tribunal), which is stated candidly rather than padded. Where a section has not been judicially construed, that is stated and the nearest governing authority is given. Citations are stated as reported and have been web-verified; the reader should consult the official report before filing. This material is for professional reference and is not legal advice.
CHAPTER XIX-B — ADVANCE RULINGS
Section 245RR — Appellate Authority Not to Proceed in Certain Cases
Case Laws & Commentary · Income-tax Act, 1961 (as amended by the Finance Act, 2026) · bharattax.co Treatise
Provision: Inserted by the Finance Act, 2003 w.e.f. 1 June 2003. A stand-still provision: no income-tax authority and no Appellate Tribunal shall proceed to decide any issue in respect of which a resident applicant has made an application under s.245Q(1).
Finance Act, 2026: No amendment to section 245RR.
Status: No direct merits case law. Candour rule applied. The section is the mirror-image, for the resident applicant, of the s.245R(2)(i) “already pending” bar, and is best read with that jurisprudence.
A. SECTION COMMENTARY
1. Object — preventing a clash of forums for the resident applicant
Section 245RR addresses the converse of the s.245R(2)(i) admission bar. Whereas s.245R(2)(i) tells the Authority not to admit a question already pending before an income-tax authority, the Tribunal or a court, s.245RR tells the income-tax authorities and the Tribunal not to proceed to decide an issue once a resident applicant has filed an application before the Authority under s.245Q(1). Together they prevent two forums from deciding the same issue at the same time, and protect the integrity of the advance-ruling process for resident applicants (the class brought in by successive amendments and notifications).
2. Scope and limits
The stay operates only in respect of the issue on which the advance ruling is sought, and only while the application subsists; it does not freeze the assessment as a whole, nor does it bar the authorities from deciding unrelated issues. It is confined by its terms to a “resident” applicant. Because the provision is self-executing and narrowly drawn, it has generated no separate body of merits litigation; the contested questions about when an issue is or is not “pending” have been fought under s.245R(2)(i), to which the reader is referred.
3. Candour
There is no reported decision construing s.245RR on its merits. The governing jurisprudence is that on the cognate “already pending” bar in s.245R(2)(i) — Hyosung (SC), SAGE Publications (SC), Monte Harris and SEPCO III — collected under s.245R, Cluster 2. The cross-reference below is supplied in lieu of direct authority; no inapposite case is pressed into service.
B. STATUTORY POSITION (verbatim text)
The text of section 245RR, as it stands in the Act (Finance Act, 2025 base text), is set out below.
245RR. No income-tax authority or the Appellate Tribunal shall proceed to decide any issue in respect to which an application has been made by an applicant, being a resident, under sub-section (1) of section 245Q.
Editorial note: section 245RR was inserted by the Finance Act, 2003 w.e.f. 1 June 2003.
C. AUTHORITIES
Candour rule: there is no merits authority on s.245RR. It is the mirror of the s.245R(2)(i) bar; the cognate apex authorities under that bar govern the meaning of “pendency” and are cross-referenced below.
Cluster 1 — The cognate “already pending” line (cross-reference)
These authorities, fully noted under s.245R (Cluster 2), define when an issue is “pending” and therefore frame the operation of the s.245RR stand-still for resident applicants.
CIT v. Hyosung Corporation (2016) 244 Taxman 286 (SC) — cross-ref s.245R
Held: Mere filing of a return / issue of a s.143(2) notice does not make a question “pending.”
Relevance: Defines the pendency concept that s.245RR mirrors for resident applicants.
SEPCO III Electric Power Construction Corpn, In re (2011) 340 ITR 225 (AAR) — cross-ref s.245R
Held: Pendency of a s.195/197 application or a s.263 revision is not a bar.
Relevance: Clarifies what proceedings do not engage the pendency/stand-still concept.
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 (text as printed in the local Act, base text amended up to the Finance Act, 2025), with the publisher's footnote apparatus and amendment-marker brackets removed; no statutory word is altered. Chapter XIX-B (Advance Rulings, ss.245N–245W) was inserted by the Finance Act, 1993; the Authority for Advance Rulings was replaced, for fresh income-tax applications, by the Board for Advance Rulings (s.245-OB, Finance Act, 2021), with a statutory appeal to the High Court (s.245W) and the e-Advance Rulings Scheme, 2022. The Finance Act, 2026 makes NO amendment to any section of Chapter XIX-B. Rulings of the Authority for Advance Rulings are cited as the natural body of jurisprudence on this Chapter; Supreme Court and High Court decisions are flagged as such; there is virtually no Income-tax Appellate Tribunal authority on Chapter XIX-B (advance-ruling disputes travel to the High Court/Supreme Court, not the Tribunal), which is stated candidly rather than padded. Where a section has not been judicially construed, that is stated and the nearest governing authority is given. Citations are stated as reported and have been web-verified; the reader should consult the official report before filing. This material is for professional reference and is not legal advice.