Section 372 of the Income-tax Act, 2025 — Exclusion of Time Taken for Obtaining a Copy of the Order (Appeal Limitation)

In plain language

What Section 372 actually says

Section 372 of the Income-tax Act, 2025 is a short but powerful procedural safeguard sitting inside Chapter XVIII (Appeals, Revisions and Alternate Dispute Resolutions). It provides that when you are working out whether an appeal or application has been filed within the time limit prescribed by the Act, two periods must be excluded (left out) from that calculation:

• The day of service — the day on which the order you are aggrieved by was served on you does not count.
• The copy-obtaining period — if you were not given a copy of the order when the notice of the order was served, the time you reasonably needed to obtain that copy is also excluded.

In plain words: the limitation clock does not run against you for the day the order lands, nor for the days you had to spend chasing a physical or certified copy of the order you cannot even read yet. This is the successor to and near-verbatim reproduction of Section 268 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, so decades of settled understanding continue to apply.

Why this section exists

You cannot sensibly draft grounds of appeal against an order you have not seen. It would be grossly unfair to count the deadline against a taxpayer while the department is still processing or delivering the very document being challenged. Section 372 encodes that fairness principle so that a genuine litigant is never shut out of appeal merely because of departmental delay in supplying the order.

Who it applies to

• Every assessee — individuals, HUFs, firms, LLPs, companies, trusts and any other person — who intends to file an appeal or application under the Act.
• It operates for the full ladder of appeals and applications: appeal to the Joint Commissioner (Appeals) or Commissioner (Appeals) under Sections 356–358, appeal to the Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) under Section 362, and rectification/other applications where a limitation period is prescribed.
• The word "application" (added to the 1961 provision by amendment and carried forward here) means the benefit is not limited to appeals alone.

Key conditions and limits

• No copy at the time of service: The exclusion for copy-time applies only where a copy of the order was not furnished when the notice was served. In the modern e-filing / e-proceedings era, most orders are uploaded to the portal along with the notice — in that case there is effectively no copy-time to exclude, and only the day of service drops out.
• Reasonable time only: You can exclude the time required to obtain the copy — meaning the reasonable, actually-incurred period, not an open-ended or self-created delay. You may have to demonstrate the dates of applying for and receiving the copy.
• Automatic, not discretionary: Unlike condonation of delay (which needs "sufficient cause" and an officer's discretion), Section 372 is an automatic statutory exclusion — the excluded days simply do not count.

How it interacts with related sections

• Section 358 (Form of appeal and limitation before CIT(A)/JCIT(A)): The limitation period for the first appeal is computed after applying Section 372 exclusions.
• Section 362 (Appeals to the Appellate Tribunal): Same — the ITAT appeal window is measured net of the excluded days.
• Condonation of delay: Section 372 first shrinks the elapsed period; if you are still late even after exclusion, you separately ask the appellate authority to condone the delay for sufficient cause. The two work in sequence, not as substitutes.

Practical implications

• Always note and preserve the date of service of the order and, if no copy was attached, the date you applied for a copy and the date you received it. These dates are your evidence.
• When a copy is downloaded instantly from the e-filing portal, do not assume a large exclusion — usually only the service day is excluded.
• Do not treat Section 372 as a licence to relax. It is a safety cushion, not an extension of the deadline; the safest practice is to file well inside the base limitation period.