Income Tax Department Explains Appeals and Revisions Under Income Tax Act, 2025: Key Transition Rules for Pending and New Cases

The Income Tax Department has published FAQs on Appeals and Revisions on the e-Filing portal, explaining how the Income Tax Act, 2025 deals with appeals, rectification, remand, revision and dispute resolution for years that straddle the old and new laws. The main message is continuity. The appellate route is the same, the powers of appellate authorities are materially unchanged, and most matters linked to tax years beginning before 1 April 2026 stay under the Income-tax Act, 1961 through the savings clause in section 536 of the 2025 Act.

Same hierarchy, new section numbers

The appellate sequence remains Assessing Officer, then Joint Commissioner (Appeals) or Commissioner (Appeals), then the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), High Court and Supreme Court. The FAQs say the powers of appellate authorities, including the power to confirm, reduce, enhance or annul an assessment, are materially unchanged. The provisions have been regrouped as follows:

Pending and older-year appeals stay under the 1961 Act

An appeal pending before the CIT(A), the Tribunal or a court on 1 April 2026 continues under the 1961 Act, and no fresh appeal needs to be filed. The same applies to proceedings started after that date if they relate to Assessment Year 2026-27 or an earlier year. The FAQs give an example: an appeal for AY 2024-25 is governed by the 1961 Act and must be filed within the 30-day limitation period under that Act.

A right of appeal, revision or reference whose limitation had already expired before the new Act began is not revived because the 2025 Act has a different time limit. Condonation of delay under the old law may still be sought by showing sufficient cause.

Rectification and remand

Rectification of an appellate order for an earlier year lies under the corresponding provision of the 1961 Act. Where the ITAT remands a case on or after 1 April 2026 for a year such as AY 2023-24, the remand proceedings continue under the 1961 Act and are not treated as a fresh proceeding under the 2025 Act.

Dispute Resolution Committee

Section 379 substantially re-enacts section 245MA. The monetary thresholds are the same: the variation must be below Rs 10 lakh and returned income below Rs 50 lakh, subject to the statutory exclusions. Section 379(2) expressly says the DRC may modify the variations in the specified order, apart from granting penalty waiver or prosecution immunity. A draft order under section 144C of the 1961 Act (section 275(1) of the 2025 Act) is a "specified order", so both the Dispute Resolution Panel and the DRC can be available, but the taxpayer cannot pursue both at the same time.

Revision and repeat litigation

Sections 375 and 376 keep the trigger of sections 158A and 158AB: the mechanism applies only where an identical question of law arising in the case is already pending before a High Court or the Supreme Court. Under section 377, revision still needs an order that is both erroneous and prejudicial to the interests of the revenue, and the outer limit remains two years from the end of the financial year in which the order was passed. Section 377(7) adds an explicit rule giving a minimum residual period of 60 days after excluding periods such as a court stay.

What professionals should do

• Start with the tax year and the procedural history of the matter, then check section 536 before citing a 2025 Act section.
• For AY 2026-27 and earlier years, use the 1961 Act provisions, forms and limitation periods for appeals, rectification and remand.
• Where limitation has already expired, file a condonation request with reasons instead of relying on a longer period in the new Act.
• When a draft order is received, choose between DRP and DRC after checking eligibility, since both cannot run together.

Updated on 27 September 2026: linked the Income Tax Department's Appeals and Revisions FAQs, verified every section reference and example against them, and added a section-mapping table.