CHAPTER XX — APPEALS AND REVISION | B.—Appeals to the Appellate Tribunal
CHAPTER XX — APPEALS AND REVISION | B.—Appeals to the Appellate Tribunal
Section 252A — Qualifications, Terms and Conditions of Service of President, Vice-President and Member
Case Laws & Commentary — Income-tax Act, 1961 (as amended by the Finance Act, 2026) — bharattax.co Treatise
Status: Live. Inserted to align ITAT appointments with the Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021 — qualifications, appointment, term of office, salaries, resignation and removal are governed by that Act notwithstanding anything in the Income-tax Act.
Finance Act, 2026: No amendment. The Finance Act, 2026 does not touch section 252A.
Nature / mechanism: Overriding provision channelling the service conditions of ITAT members to the Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021 and the rules thereunder.
Litigation profile: No direct Income-tax case law — candour rule. The governing jurisprudence is the Supreme Court's tribunalisation line testing the constitutional validity of members' tenure and selection.
Section 252A subordinates the qualifications, appointment, tenure, salaries and removal of the President, Vice-Presidents and Members to the Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021. It is machinery, harmonising the ITAT with the unified tribunal-service framework Parliament enacted after a series of constitutional challenges to tribunal-member service conditions.
The constitutional backdrop
The validity of tribunal-member tenure and selection norms has been repeatedly tested. The Supreme Court has insisted on short tenures and executive-dominated selection being incompatible with judicial independence, reading down or striking offending rules. Section 252A must be read subject to those constitutional guarantees.
B. STATUTORY TEXT (verbatim)
Reproduced verbatim from the Income-tax Act, 1961 (as amended up to the Finance Act, 2025). Inline numerals in square brackets are the bare Act's amendment-footnote markers.
Qualifications, terms and conditions of service of President, Vice-President and Member.
252A. Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, the qualifications, appointment, term of office, salaries and allowances, resignation, removal and the other terms and conditions of service of the President, Vice-President and other Members of the Appellate Tribunal appointed after the commencement of the Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021, shall be governed by the provisions of Chapter II of the said Act:
Provided that the President, Vice-President and Member appointed before the commencement of Part XIV of Chapter VI of the Finance Act, 2017, shall continue to be governed by the provisions of this Act, and the rules made thereunder as if the provisions of section 184 of the Finance Act, 2017 had not come into force.
C. AUTHORITIES
Candour rule — no merits decision construes section 252A. The cognate constitutional authorities on tribunal-member service conditions govern its working.
Cluster 1 — Cognate: constitutional norms for tribunal members
These decisions do not interpret section 252A but control the validity of the service-condition framework it adopts.
Madras Bar Association v. Union of India, (2021) 7 SCC 369 (SC)
Holding Provisions of the Tribunals Reforms framework prescribing short tenures and executive-weighted selection were held to impair judicial independence; the Court directed longer tenures and a Search-cum-Selection Committee with judicial primacy.
Relevance Governs the constitutional limits within which section 252A's reference to the 2021 Act operates.
Union of India v. R. Gandhi, President, Madras Bar Association, (2010) 11 SCC 1 (SC)
Holding Tribunals exercising judicial power must satisfy standards of independence in members' qualifications, selection and tenure.
Relevance Foundational to the tribunalisation jurisprudence underlying section 252A.
CHAPTER XX — APPEALS AND REVISION | B.—Appeals to the Appellate Tribunal
Section 252A — Qualifications, Terms and Conditions of Service of President, Vice-President and Member
Case Laws & Commentary — Income-tax Act, 1961 (as amended by the Finance Act, 2026) — bharattax.co Treatise
Status: Live. Inserted to align ITAT appointments with the Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021 — qualifications, appointment, term of office, salaries, resignation and removal are governed by that Act notwithstanding anything in the Income-tax Act.
Finance Act, 2026: No amendment. The Finance Act, 2026 does not touch section 252A.
Nature / mechanism: Overriding provision channelling the service conditions of ITAT members to the Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021 and the rules thereunder.
Litigation profile: No direct Income-tax case law — candour rule. The governing jurisprudence is the Supreme Court's tribunalisation line testing the constitutional validity of members' tenure and selection.
A. COMMENTARY
Why section 252A exists
Section 252A subordinates the qualifications, appointment, tenure, salaries and removal of the President, Vice-Presidents and Members to the Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021. It is machinery, harmonising the ITAT with the unified tribunal-service framework Parliament enacted after a series of constitutional challenges to tribunal-member service conditions.
The constitutional backdrop
The validity of tribunal-member tenure and selection norms has been repeatedly tested. The Supreme Court has insisted on short tenures and executive-dominated selection being incompatible with judicial independence, reading down or striking offending rules. Section 252A must be read subject to those constitutional guarantees.
B. STATUTORY TEXT (verbatim)
Reproduced verbatim from the Income-tax Act, 1961 (as amended up to the Finance Act, 2025). Inline numerals in square brackets are the bare Act's amendment-footnote markers.
Qualifications, terms and conditions of service of President, Vice-President and Member.
252A. Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, the qualifications, appointment, term of office, salaries and allowances, resignation, removal and the other terms and conditions of service of the President, Vice-President and other Members of the Appellate Tribunal appointed after the commencement of the Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021, shall be governed by the provisions of Chapter II of the said Act:
Provided that the President, Vice-President and Member appointed before the commencement of Part XIV of Chapter VI of the Finance Act, 2017, shall continue to be governed by the provisions of this Act, and the rules made thereunder as if the provisions of section 184 of the Finance Act, 2017 had not come into force.
C. AUTHORITIES
Candour rule — no merits decision construes section 252A. The cognate constitutional authorities on tribunal-member service conditions govern its working.
Cluster 1 — Cognate: constitutional norms for tribunal members
These decisions do not interpret section 252A but control the validity of the service-condition framework it adopts.
Madras Bar Association v. Union of India, (2021) 7 SCC 369 (SC)
Holding Provisions of the Tribunals Reforms framework prescribing short tenures and executive-weighted selection were held to impair judicial independence; the Court directed longer tenures and a Search-cum-Selection Committee with judicial primacy.
Relevance Governs the constitutional limits within which section 252A's reference to the 2021 Act operates.
Union of India v. R. Gandhi, President, Madras Bar Association, (2010) 11 SCC 1 (SC)
Holding Tribunals exercising judicial power must satisfy standards of independence in members' qualifications, selection and tenure.
Relevance Foundational to the tribunalisation jurisprudence underlying section 252A.