| Authored by R & D Law Chambers LLP
Ravish Bhatt | Advocate, Bar Council of Gujarat (G/504/2008) | Dual-qualified lawyer (India and England & Wales) | ADIT, CIOT, London | SRA (non-practising) Registration No. 492 477 Published: 4 October 2026 | Last reviewed: 4 October 2026 |
| This note states the law under the Income-tax Act, 2025 (Act 30 of 2025), in force from 1 April 2026, chiefly section 515 (appearance by authorised representative, formerly section 288 of the Income-tax Act, 1961) and section 246 (powers of discovery and summons, formerly section 131), together with section 247(6) (examination on oath during a search or seizure) and rule 254 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026, and the Income Tax Department’s published e-Proceedings guidance. We advise on Indian law only. |
| Yes. Section 515(1) of the Income-tax Act, 2025 lets an assessee attend any income-tax authority or the Appellate Tribunal through an authorised representative, and a legal practitioner entitled to practise in any civil court qualifies. Two limits decide every case: section 515(2) excludes personal examination on oath under section 246, and the e-Filing portal recognises a representative only once you add him to the proceeding. |
Index of Topics
- Can a lawyer reply to an income tax notice for you?
- Who qualifies as an authorised representative
- The one exception: examination on oath under section 246
- Two authorisations: the written one and the portal one
- Who cannot represent you
- Before the Appellate Tribunal
- Proceedings still running under the 1961 Act
1. Can a lawyer reply to an income tax notice for you?
| Yes. Section 515(1) provides that an assessee entitled or required to attend before any income-tax authority or the Appellate Tribunal, for any proceeding under the Act, may attend through an authorised representative. Replying to a notice, attending a hearing and arguing an appeal are all within it. |
The provision is drafted around attendance. On the e-Filing portal, attendance to a notice takes the form of a response uploaded to the proceeding, and the Income Tax Department’s e-Proceedings guidance provides for a representative to be added for that purpose. The authority the statute gives therefore extends to the reply itself: the representative may draft and file the response, and attend any hearing that follows. Nothing in section 515 confines representation to particular kinds of notice.
What the representative cannot do is stand in for you where the law requires you personally. Section 515 identifies one such case, and it is the case that matters most when an inquiry turns serious.
2. Who qualifies as an authorised representative
| A person authorised by you in writing who falls within section 515(3)(a): a relative or regular employee, an officer of your scheduled bank, a legal practitioner entitled to practise in any civil court in India, a chartered accountant in practice, a person with a recognised accountancy qualification, and other prescribed or grandfathered categories. |
The list in section 515(3)(a) has nine entries. For a business the relevant ones are the legal practitioner in clause (iii) and the accountant in clause (iv), defined in clause (b) as a chartered accountant within section 2(1)(b) of the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 who holds a valid certificate of practice under section 6(1) of that Act. Clause (i) allows a person related to or regularly employed by the assessee, so an in-house finance officer may also appear. Where the assessee is a company or a limited liability partnership in insolvency, rule 254 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026 fills clause (ix) by naming the interim resolution professional, resolution professional or liquidator appointed under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.
Every category is subject to the same opening words: a person authorised by the assessee, in writing, to appear on his behalf. Qualification makes a person eligible. Only the written authority makes him your representative.
3. The one exception: examination on oath under section 246
| Section 515(2) disapplies representation where the assessee is required to attend personally for examination on oath or affirmation under section 246. What engages the exclusion is what the summons requires of you, not the power under which it was issued. A summons requiring you to attend personally for examination must be answered by you in person. Your representative cannot give that evidence for you. |
Section 246(1), the successor to section 131 of the 1961 Act, gives the Assessing Officer and the other listed authorities the powers of a civil court for enforcing the attendance of any person and examining him on oath. Section 246(2) extends those powers to investigation officers and to authorised officers in search cases even where no proceeding is pending. Where the examination is by an authorised officer during a search or seizure, section 247(6)(a) provides that the statement may thereafter be used in evidence in any proceeding under the 2025 Act or the Income-tax Act, 1961.
On its words, section 515(2) is confined to a requirement of personal attendance for examination. A summons that calls only for the production of books of account or documents is not within the exclusion, and section 515(1) continues to apply to it. Where a summons does both, requiring you to attend for examination and to produce documents, the exclusion operates on the examination; the production limb remains within section 515(1), and your representative may deal with it. These words are not new. Section 288(1) of the 1961 Act carried the same carve-out, for a person required under section 131 to attend personally for examination on oath or affirmation. No reported decision construes section 515(2), so the summons itself is what you read before deciding who goes.
4. Two authorisations: the written one and the portal one
| The statute requires authority in writing. The e-Filing portal separately requires the assessee to add the representative to the proceeding before he can see or answer the notice. A representative with a signed letter but no portal authorisation cannot file; one added on the portal still needs the written authority. |
The Income Tax Department’s e-Proceedings guidance states that a registered user may add or withdraw an Authorised Representative to respond to the notices, intimations and letters listed there, and that the representative then responds by logging in as Authorised Representative. Its published FAQs add two operating rules: only one Authorised Representative may be active at a time for a proceeding, and a response cannot be updated or withdrawn once submitted.
The second rule is the one that bites. A reply filed by a representative is final in the portal the moment it is submitted, and it is your reply. The written authority should therefore define what the representative may file without further instructions, and the portal authorisation should be added for the specific proceeding rather than left in place for any notice that arrives.
5. Who cannot represent you
| Section 515(4) disqualifies a person dismissed or removed from Government service, a person convicted of an offence connected with income-tax proceedings or penalised under the Act, an insolvent, and a person convicted of an offence involving fraud, each for the period the sub-section specifies. A penalty under section 465(1)(d) of the 2025 Act, or under section 271(1)(ii) or 272A(1)(d) of the 1961 Act, does not disqualify. |
The periods differ. Dismissal from Government service disqualifies for all time; a tax conviction or penalty disqualifies for such time as the Principal Chief Commissioner, Chief Commissioner, Principal Commissioner or Commissioner determines by order; insolvency disqualifies while it continues; and a fraud conviction disqualifies for ten years from the date of conviction.
Section 515(5) adds professional discipline. A legal practitioner or accountant found guilty of misconduct by his own disciplinary authority is affected before income-tax authorities in the same way as in his profession, and any other representative found guilty of misconduct in income-tax proceedings may be disqualified by the prescribed authority. Under section 515(6) no such order may be made without a reasonable opportunity of being heard, it may be appealed to the Board within one month, and it does not take effect for a month or until the appeal is decided.
6. Before the Appellate Tribunal
| Section 515(1) names the Appellate Tribunal expressly, so the same authorised representative may appear in an appeal before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal as in the proceedings below, subject to the same written authority and the same disqualifications. |
Continuity matters on appeal more than anywhere else. The record the Tribunal reads is the record built in the replies and hearings below, and a representative who drafted those replies knows where the evidence sits and where it does not. The authorisation for the appeal should be executed afresh for the appellate proceeding, because the portal authorisation is proceeding-specific.
Representation, proceeding by proceeding
| Proceeding | Can an authorised representative act? | Source |
| Written response to a notice in e-Proceedings | Yes, once added to that proceeding on the portal | Section 515(1); e-Proceedings guidance |
| Hearing before an income-tax authority | Yes, with written authority | Section 515(1) and (3)(a) |
| Summons to examine you on oath | No: you must attend personally | Sections 515(2) and 246(1)(b) |
| Summons only to produce documents | Not within the exclusion in section 515(2) | Section 515(1) and (2) |
| Summons requiring examination and production | You attend for the examination; representative may produce the documents | Sections 515(1), 515(2) and 246(1)(b) |
| Appeal before the Appellate Tribunal | Yes, with written authority | Section 515(1) |
| Proceeding under the 1961 Act | Governed by section 288 of that Act | Section 536(2)(c) |
7. Proceedings still running under the 1961 Act
| Proceedings for tax years beginning before 1 April 2026 continue under the Income-tax Act, 1961 by virtue of section 536(2)(c) of the 2025 Act. Representation in those proceedings is governed by section 288 of the 1961 Act, which section 515 replaces, and section 515(7) carries forward disqualifications imposed under it. |
Most assessees will have notices under both Acts running at once for some time. The notice will state the Act and the section it is issued under, and the representation provision follows that Act. Section 515(3)(a)(viii) preserves the standing of persons who were authorised representatives under section 288(2)(vii) of the 1961 Act, and section 515(7) keeps disqualified any person disqualified under section 288(5).
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a lawyer reply to an income tax notice on my behalf?
Yes. Section 515(1) of the Income-tax Act, 2025 allows an assessee to attend any income-tax authority or the Appellate Tribunal through an authorised representative, and a legal practitioner entitled to practise in any civil court in India qualifies under section 515(3)(a)(iii). The authority must be given in writing, and on the portal the lawyer must be added to the proceeding.
Can my lawyer or CA attend a summons under section 246 for me?
Not if the summons requires you to attend personally for examination on oath or affirmation. Section 515(2) excludes representation in that case, so you must attend and give the statement yourself. A summons that only calls for documents is outside that exclusion, and where a summons does both, the exclusion bites on the examination and not on the production of the documents.
Does the authorisation of a representative have to be in writing?
Yes. Section 515(3)(a) defines an authorised representative as a person authorised by the assessee in writing to appear on his behalf. Adding the representative on the e-Filing portal is a separate step and does not replace the written authority.
How do I let my representative respond on the income tax portal?
Through the e-Proceedings facility. The Income Tax Department’s guidance states that a registered user can add or withdraw an Authorised Representative to respond to notices, intimations and letters, and the representative then logs in as Authorised Representative to view and answer the notice.
Can two representatives respond in the same proceeding?
No. The Income Tax Department’s e-Proceedings FAQs state that only one Authorised Representative can be active at a time for a proceeding. If you change representative, withdraw the first before adding the second.
Can a response filed by my representative be withdrawn?
No. The e-Proceedings FAQs state that a response cannot be updated or withdrawn once it is submitted on the e-Filing portal. The written authority should therefore say what the representative may file without your further approval.
How R & D Law Chambers Works on These Matters
R & D Law Chambers LLP is an Ahmedabad law firm. We advise on Indian law only, for businesses anywhere, wherever a matter has an India connection.
The firm advises and represents assessees in proceedings under the Income-tax Act, 2025 and the Income-tax Act, 1961, from replies to notices and summons through appeals before the Commissioner (Appeals) and the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal. That work sits within the firm’s income tax litigation practice.
Related services
- Income Tax Lawyer in Ahmedabad: Assessments, Reassessments and ITAT Appeals: notices, assessments and appeals.
- Responding to Income Tax Notices in India: what each notice under the 2025 Act requires.
- Responding to a Reassessment Notice under Sections 280 and 281: the reassessment procedure.
| This article is for information only and is not legal advice. It states the position as at 4 October 2026. |