Section 269N — Rectification of Mistakes

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

Section 269N — Rectification of mistakes

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 It stands superseded by Chapter XX-C and, for current transactions, by section 50C / section 56(2)(x).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: Permits the competent authority to amend any order under the Chapter to rectify a mistake apparent from the record, within the prescribed time and after notice where the amendment is prejudicial.

Litigation profile: Rectification machinery; governed by the general 'mistake apparent from record' jurisprudence.

A. COMMENTARY

Scope

Section 269N is the Chapter's analogue of section 154: it allows correction only of a mistake apparent from the record — an obvious, self-evident error not requiring elaborate argument — and requires notice before any amendment to the prejudice of a person. It is not a route to re-decide the merits of acquisition.

Candour

There is no distinct Chapter XX-A authority on section 269N; the controlling principles are the general ones on what constitutes a 'mistake apparent from the record', applied mutatis mutandis.

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.

Rectification of mistakes.

269N. With a view to rectifying any mistake apparent from the record, the competent authority may amend any order made by him under this Chapter at any time before the time for presenting an appeal against such order has expired, either on his own motion or on the mistake being brought to his notice by any person affected by the order :

Provided that if any such amendment is likely to affect any person prejudicially, it shall not be made without giving to such person a reasonable opportunity of being heard.

C. AUTHORITIES

Candour rule: rectification confined to obvious errors; no section-specific authority, general principles apply.

Cognate — character of Chapter XX-A orders rectified

CIT v. Smt. Vimlaben Bhagwandas Patel and Smt. Kamlaben Kanjibhai Patel — [1979] 118 ITR 134 (Gujarat) (decided 25 January 1979)

Facts Notice under section 269D(1) initiating acquisition of two industrial sheds transferred below the competent authority's estimate of fair market value; the transferee challenged initiation.

Held The leading judgment on Chapter XX-A. The acquisition machinery is expropriatory and penal in character and must be construed strictly. Initiation under section 269C(1) requires the competent authority to entertain reason to believe BOTH limbs of the 'twin conditions' — (i) that the fair market value exceeds the apparent consideration (understatement), and (ii) that the consideration was not truly stated with the ulterior object in clause (a) or (b) (reduction/evasion of the transferor's tax or concealment by the transferee). The statutory presumptions in section 269C(2) belong to the post-initiation adjudicatory stage (section 269F) and cannot supply the reason to believe at the threshold.

Also Where the authority records more than one ground, the initiation is not vitiated merely because one ground is later found defective, so long as a valid ground survives. Reasons must have a rational nexus with the material.