Section 144C(4) of the Income Tax Act
Income-tax Act, 2025: s.275
Section 144C(4) falls under section 144C of the Income-tax Act, 1961, which corresponds to section 275 (Reference to Dispute Resolution Panel) of the Income-tax Act, 2025.
Read section 275 of the 2025 Act
Correspondence checked against the ICAI tabular mapping of the two Acts and the BharatTax.co section commentary.
The decision most relied on for Section 144C(4) is Shelf Drilling Ron Tappmeyer Ltd. v. ACIT\n(Intl. Taxation) (153 Taxmann.com 162), cited in 169 of the 61 judgments on BharatTax that turn on this section.
Leading authorities on Section 144C(4)
The time consumed in proceedings before the Dispute Resolution Panel (DRP) under Section 144C must be subsumed within the limitation period prescribed under Section 153 for the completion of assessment, meaning these timelines are not mutually exclusive.
A High Court decision is binding on subordinate authorities like the Assessing Officer. The Assessing Officer erred in not following a prior jurisdictional High Court ruling and a Madras High Court ruling.
Proceedings before the Dispute Resolution Panel (DRP) are a continuation of the assessment proceedings, not an appeal, and the DRP acts as a corrective mechanism offering a second look at the draft assessment order before a final, appealable order is passed by the Assessing Officer.
Where a Mutual Agreement Procedure (MAP) is invoked and resolved for transactions with AEs in one country, the same margin or arm's length price determined under that MAP resolution can be applied to similar transactions with AEs in other countries, particularly for ITES services.
