Section 269J — Compensation

CHAPTER XX-A — ACQUISITION OF IMMOVABLE PROPERTIES IN CERTAIN CASES OF TRANSFER TO COUNTERACT EVASION OF TAX

Section 269J — Compensation

Case Laws & Commentary — Income-tax Act, 1961 (as amended by the Finance Act, 2026) — bharattax.co Treatise

Status: Historic / spent. Chapter XX-A was inserted by the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Act, 1972, with effect from 15 November 1972, and does not apply to transfers of immovable property made after 30 September 1986 (section 269RR). It stands superseded by Chapter XX-C and, for current transactions, by section 50C / section 56(2)(x).

Finance Act, 2026: No amendment. The Finance Act, 2026 does not touch any provision of Chapter XX-A.

Mechanism: Fixes the compensation payable on acquisition — the apparent consideration plus the statutory solatium (an addition over the apparent consideration) — and provides for apportionment among persons interested.

Litigation profile: Litigated chiefly on valuation/fair market value feeding into compensation.

A. COMMENTARY

Measure of compensation

Section 269J ties compensation to the apparent consideration augmented by the statutory solatium, rather than to the (higher) fair market value the authority itself found. This deliberate asymmetry is the sting of the Chapter: the transferee who undervalued recovers only what was apparently paid plus the fixed addition, not the market value — a strong deterrent against undervaluation.

Valuation context

Where compensation or its apportionment turns on value, the valuation jurisprudence applies — the belting method and objective fair-market-value standard of Madho Properties, Mathura Prosad Rajgharia and Tribeni Devi.

Candour

The compensation formula was rarely the subject of independent merits rulings; disputes were normally resolved at the valuation/acquisition stage.

B. STATUTORY TEXT (verbatim)

Reproduced verbatim from the Income-tax Act, 1961, as amended up to the Finance Act, 2025 (the Finance Act, 2026 makes no change). Page-header/footer artefacts of the source PDF have been removed; wording, clause-lettering and punctuation are unaltered.

Compensation.

269J. (1) Where any immovable property is acquired under this Chapter, the Central Government shall pay for such acquisition compensation which shall be a sum equal to the aggregate of the amount of the apparent consideration for its transfer and fifteen per cent of the said amount :

Provided that in a case where, under the agreement between the parties concerned, the whole or any part of the consideration for the transfer of such immovable property is payable on any date or dates falling after the date on which such property is acquired, the compensation payable by the Central Government shall be the aggregate of the following amounts, namely :—

(i) an amount equal to fifteen per cent of the apparent consideration ;

(ii) the amount, if any, that has become payable in accordance with such agreement on or before the date on which such property is acquired under this Chapter ; and

(iii) the amount payable after the date on which such property is acquired under this Chapter.

(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1),—

(a) where, after the transfer to the transferee of the property referred to in that sub-section but before the vesting of the property in the Central Government, the property has been damaged (otherwise than as a result of normal wear and tear), the compensation payable under that sub-section shall be reduced by such amount as the competent authority and the persons entitled to the compensation may agree within fifteen days of the vesting of the property in the Central Government or in default of such agreement as the court may, on a reference made to it in this behalf by the competent authority or by any person duly authorised for the purpose by the competent authority, determine to be the amount that may have to be expended for restoring the property to the condition in which it was at the time of such transfer ;

(b) where, after the transfer of such property to the transferee but before the date of publication in the Official Gazette of the notice in respect of such property under sub-section (1) of section 269D, any improvements have been made to the property, whether by way of addition or alteration or in any other manner, the compensation payable in respect of such property under sub-section (1) shall be increased by such amount as the competent authority and the persons entitled to the compensation may agree within fifteen days of the vesting of the property in the Central Government or in default of such agreement as the court may, on a reference made to it in this behalf by the competent authority or by any person duly authorised for the purpose by the competent authority, determine to be the amount spent for making such improvements.

(3) Every reference under clause (a) or clause (b) of sub-section (2) shall be made within thirty days of the date on which the immovable property to which it relates becomes vested in the Central Government or within such further period as the court may, on an application made in this behalf before the expiry of the said period and on being satisfied that there is sufficient cause for doing so, allow and such reference shall state clearly the compensation payable under sub-section (1) in respect of the immovable property and the amount by which, according to the estimate of the competent authority, such compensation shall be reduced under clause (a) or, as the case may be, increased under clause (b), of sub-section (2).

(4) The amount by which the compensation payable under sub-section (1) in respect of any immovable property acquired under this Chapter falls short of the amount which would have been payable as compensation if that property had been acquired under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (1 of 1894), after the issue of a preliminary notice under section 4 of that Act on the date of publication in the Official Gazette of the notice in respect of the property under sub-section (1) of section 269D, shall be deemed to have been realised by the Central Government as a penalty from the transferee for being a party to a transfer with such object as is referred to in clause (a) or clause (b) of sub-section (1) of section 269C, and no penalty shall be levied for any assessment year on the transferee—

(a) under clause (iii) of sub-section (1) of section 271, for concealing the particulars or furnishing inaccurate particulars of so much of his income as is utilised by him for paying to the transferor, by way of consideration for the property, any amount in excess of the apparent consideration for the property, notwithstanding that such amount is included in the income of the transferee ;

(b) under clause (iii) of sub-section (1) of section 18 of the Wealth-tax Act, 1957 (27 of 1957), for concealing the particulars or furnishing inaccurate particulars of so much of his assets as are utilised by him for paying to the transferor, by way of consideration for the property, any amount in excess of the apparent consideration for the property, notwithstanding that such assets are included in the net wealth of the transferee.

C. AUTHORITIES

Compensation is the apparent consideration plus solatium; valuation jurisprudence supplies the context for disputes.

Valuation feeding compensation and apportionment

CIT, West Bengal-II v. Madho Properties Ltd. — Calcutta High Court, per Dipak Kumar Sen & C.K. Banerji JJ (decided 12 September 1980)

Held The 'belting method' of valuing urban land (the front belt valued highest and successive rear belts at a discount by distance from the road) is a scientific and acceptable mode of arriving at fair market value when supported by data; it was approved following Mathura Prosad Rajgharia v. State of West Bengal (SC) and Smt. Tribeni Devi v. Collector, Ranchi (SC).

Also Reaffirmed that the section 269C(2) presumptions cannot be invoked at the initiation stage; the Tribunal's adoption of the belting method was upheld and the Revenue's appeal dismissed.

Mathura Prosad Rajgharia v. State of West Bengal — Supreme Court

Cognate (valuation) Approved the belting method for valuing urban land acquired compulsorily; the method is scientific where the diminution of value with distance from the road is borne out by data. Applied in Madho Properties to fair market value under Chapter XX-A.

Smt. Tribeni Devi v. Collector, Ranchi — Supreme Court

Cognate (valuation) Fair market value must be assessed on an objective standard, taking account of the property's present condition and its reasonable potential; guidance relied upon for the 'fair market value' enquiry under sections 269A/269C/269J.