Section 270 — Failure to Furnish Information Regarding Securities (Omitted)
Case Laws & Commentary — Income-tax Act, 1961 (as amended by the Finance Act, 2026) — bharattax.co Treatise
Status: Omitted. Section 270 was omitted by the Direct Tax Laws (Amendment) Act, 1987, with effect from 1 April 1989. No penalty survives under this section; it is reproduced for the integrity of the Chapter and for understanding cross-references in older orders and reported decisions.
Finance Act, 2026: No amendment by the Finance Act, 2026. (The reference to "section 270" in the Finance Act, 2026 amendment clauses 69 and 70 is to the Income-tax Act, 2025, a different statute, and not to this omitted section of the 1961 Act.)
Mechanism: Spent. Until 1-4-1989 the section penalised a person who failed to furnish, in due time, information regarding the holder of, or the income from, securities as was required under the then-existing reporting provisions.
Litigation profile: No live litigation. The section having been omitted with effect from 1-4-1989, no penalty can be initiated or sustained under it for any period thereafter; assessees encountering a reference to "section 270" in pre-1989 records should read it historically.
A. COMMENTARY
Position in the Chapter
Chapter XXI opens with an omitted provision. Section 270 was one of a cluster of reporting-default penalties that the Direct Tax Laws (Amendment) Act, 1987 swept away when it recast the penalty code with effect from 1 April 1989. The omission is total: the section number is retained in the statute book only as a place-holder, and the marginal note ("Failure to furnish information regarding securities, etc.") survives as the sole indication of its former content.
Practical significance
For a practitioner the section matters only in three situations: (i) when reading a pre-1989 assessment or appellate record that cites section 270; (ii) when a modern Finance Act (such as the Finance Act, 2026) amends a "section 270" — there, the reference is invariably to the Income-tax Act, 2025, and must not be confused with this omitted 1961 provision; and (iii) when tracing the legislative lineage of the present reporting-default penalties (now found in sections 271FA, 271H, 271-I, 272A and the like). No defence, computation or limitation question can arise under section 270 today.
B. STATUTORY TEXT (verbatim)
Reproduced from the Income-tax Act, 1961 as amended up to the Finance Act, 2025; Finance Act, 2026 changes are noted above.
Failure to furnish information regarding securities, etc.
270. Omitted by the Direct Tax Laws (Amendment) Act, 1987, w.e.f. 1-4-1989.
C. AUTHORITIES
The section being omitted with effect from 1-4-1989, there is no direct authority on its operation that retains current value. The candour rule applies: nothing is cited as though it were live law.
1. Effect of omission — general principle
General Finance Co. v. ACIT (2002) 257 ITR 338 (SC)
Holding Where a penalty provision is omitted without a saving clause, proceedings cannot be initiated or continued under it after the date of omission; an omitted provision is, for actions taken thereafter, as if it never existed (subject to any express saving).
Use Confirms that no section 270 penalty can be levied for any default after 1-4-1989; cited only to explain the consequence of omission, not as authority on the section’s former content.
Prepared for the bharattax.co Treatise on the Income-tax Act, 1961 (as amended by the Finance Act, 2026). Statutory text reproduced from the official Act; case-law holdings are the author’s summaries for professional use.
CHAPTER XXI — PENALTIES IMPOSABLE
Section 270 — Failure to Furnish Information Regarding Securities (Omitted)
Case Laws & Commentary — Income-tax Act, 1961 (as amended by the Finance Act, 2026) — bharattax.co Treatise
Status: Omitted. Section 270 was omitted by the Direct Tax Laws (Amendment) Act, 1987, with effect from 1 April 1989. No penalty survives under this section; it is reproduced for the integrity of the Chapter and for understanding cross-references in older orders and reported decisions.
Finance Act, 2026: No amendment by the Finance Act, 2026. (The reference to "section 270" in the Finance Act, 2026 amendment clauses 69 and 70 is to the Income-tax Act, 2025, a different statute, and not to this omitted section of the 1961 Act.)
Mechanism: Spent. Until 1-4-1989 the section penalised a person who failed to furnish, in due time, information regarding the holder of, or the income from, securities as was required under the then-existing reporting provisions.
Litigation profile: No live litigation. The section having been omitted with effect from 1-4-1989, no penalty can be initiated or sustained under it for any period thereafter; assessees encountering a reference to "section 270" in pre-1989 records should read it historically.
A. COMMENTARY
Position in the Chapter
Chapter XXI opens with an omitted provision. Section 270 was one of a cluster of reporting-default penalties that the Direct Tax Laws (Amendment) Act, 1987 swept away when it recast the penalty code with effect from 1 April 1989. The omission is total: the section number is retained in the statute book only as a place-holder, and the marginal note ("Failure to furnish information regarding securities, etc.") survives as the sole indication of its former content.
Practical significance
For a practitioner the section matters only in three situations: (i) when reading a pre-1989 assessment or appellate record that cites section 270; (ii) when a modern Finance Act (such as the Finance Act, 2026) amends a "section 270" — there, the reference is invariably to the Income-tax Act, 2025, and must not be confused with this omitted 1961 provision; and (iii) when tracing the legislative lineage of the present reporting-default penalties (now found in sections 271FA, 271H, 271-I, 272A and the like). No defence, computation or limitation question can arise under section 270 today.
B. STATUTORY TEXT (verbatim)
Reproduced from the Income-tax Act, 1961 as amended up to the Finance Act, 2025; Finance Act, 2026 changes are noted above.
Failure to furnish information regarding securities, etc.
270. Omitted by the Direct Tax Laws (Amendment) Act, 1987, w.e.f. 1-4-1989.
C. AUTHORITIES
The section being omitted with effect from 1-4-1989, there is no direct authority on its operation that retains current value. The candour rule applies: nothing is cited as though it were live law.
1. Effect of omission — general principle
General Finance Co. v. ACIT (2002) 257 ITR 338 (SC)
Holding Where a penalty provision is omitted without a saving clause, proceedings cannot be initiated or continued under it after the date of omission; an omitted provision is, for actions taken thereafter, as if it never existed (subject to any express saving).
Use Confirms that no section 270 penalty can be levied for any default after 1-4-1989; cited only to explain the consequence of omission, not as authority on the section’s former content.
Prepared for the bharattax.co Treatise on the Income-tax Act, 1961 (as amended by the Finance Act, 2026). Statutory text reproduced from the official Act; case-law holdings are the author’s summaries for professional use.