Section 248 of the Income-tax Act, 2025 — Powers to Requisition Books of Account and Assets

In plain language

What Section 248 actually says

Section 248 of the Income-tax Act, 2025 gives senior income-tax officers the power to "requisition" — that is, to formally demand and take over — books of account, documents, electronic records or assets that are already lying in the custody of some other government authority under a different law. The classic situation: the police, CBI, Customs, the Enforcement Directorate or a court seizes cash, jewellery, gold, records or a laptop during their own raid. The Income-tax Department cannot re-raid the same person for the same material, so instead it sends a written requisition to that authority and asks it to hand the material over for use in tax proceedings.

In plain terms, Section 248 is the "hand it over to us" power. It is the twin of the search-and-seizure power in Section 247 — where Section 247 lets the department seize material itself, Section 248 lets it take over material someone else has already seized. This section is the Income-tax Act, 2025 successor to the old Section 132A of the Income-tax Act, 1961, modernised to expressly cover electronic media, computer systems and stored digital information.

Who can act, and who can be asked

• Approving authority (the senior officer who signs off): Principal Director General / Director General, Principal Director / Director, Principal Chief Commissioner / Chief Commissioner, or Principal Commissioner / Commissioner. Only these top ranks can authorise a requisition.
• Requisitioning officer (the one who actually collects): a Joint Director, Joint Commissioner, Assistant Director, Assistant Commissioner or Income-tax Officer, once authorised.
• The holding authority (who must hand over): any officer or authority — police, Customs, ED, court registry, etc. — who has taken the material into custody under any other law.

The three "reason to believe" conditions

The approving authority must record a "reason to believe" that one of the following applies before a requisition can be issued:

• Condition (a) — non-production despite summons/notice: a person was issued a summons under Section 246(1) or a notice under Section 268(1) to produce books/documents/electronic records, failed to produce them, and those very records are now in the custody of another authority under another law.
• Condition (b) — likely to be withheld: the books/documents/information will be useful for or relevant to a tax proceeding, and there is reason to believe the person will not produce them if the other authority simply returns them to the person.
• Condition (c) — undisclosed assets: the assets (cash, bullion, jewellery, valuables) represent, wholly or partly, income or property that has not been disclosed for tax purposes, and are held by another authority.

What happens after the requisition

• The holding authority must deliver the material to the requisitioning officer either forthwith, or once it decides it no longer needs to retain the material for its own purposes.
• Once delivered, the material is treated exactly as if it had been seized under Section 247. That is the crucial legal effect — the requisitioned cash, records or computer step straight into the search-and-seizure machinery.
• The provisions of Section 247(4)(b), 247(7) to (11), Section 250 and Section 251 then apply — covering deemed seizure, presumptions, retention, copying and eventual release of the material.

Procedure and paperwork (draft Rule 151 / Form No. 86)

• Authorisation is issued in the prescribed Form No. 86, signed and sealed by the approving authority.
• The requisitioning officer serves a written requisition on the holding authority, attaches a copy of Form No. 86, and forwards a copy to the person concerned.
• Delivered items (other than money) are placed in sealed packages bearing the marks and seals of both officers; a detailed inventory is prepared and shared with the person and the approving authority.

Practical implications for taxpayers

• If your assets or records are seized in a police, ED or Customs action, the Income-tax Department can lawfully take them over — you do not get a "clean slate" just because a different agency acted first.
• There is no monetary threshold — requisition can be for any amount, from a few thousand rupees of cash to crores in bullion.
• Once requisitioned, the material powers a tax assessment, and unexplained cash/valuables can be taxed at the steep undisclosed-income rates and attract penalty and interest.
• Requisition must rest on a recorded "reason to believe"; a purely arbitrary requisition can be challenged in a writ petition, just as Section 132A actions were.