Section 288

Authorised representative - Appearance by

Production of books/accounts - Persons who are not authorised to appear under section 288 may be permitted to produce books of account or documents but any explanation of the account or documents, should, however, be given by the assessee himself or by a person who is entitled to appear on behalf of an assessee under section 288.—Circular: No. 19-D(XL-62) of 1964, dated 3-7-1964.

Persons competent to appear - A brother-in-law or father-in-law of an assessee can appear as authorised representative under section 288(2)(i).

A person who works part-time as an accountant for any assessee regularly will be one who is ‘regularly employed’ within the meaning of section 288(2)(i).

An employee, who merely holds a power of attorney to represent his employer at every stage in the income-tax or sales tax or any Court case, will not be considered as a person ‘regularly employed’ within the meaning of section 288(2)(i). However, if he is qualified to represent an assessee otherwise than as an employee under section 288, he may appear on the basis of a power of attorney executed by a number of assessees.—Letter : F. No. 21/4/63-IT, dated 14-6-1963.

Filing of power of attorney/vakalatnama - The practice of filing power of attorney/vakalatnama/general power of attorney in favour of a firm or a legal body is not correct and the President, Income-tax Appellate Tribunal, has decided that proper authority in favour of the individual or a joint authority in favour of two or more individuals, only should be filed before the Tribunal—Notification : No. F. 161-AD(AT)/70, dated 30-12-1971.

However, it will also be sufficient if, while filing the power of attorney in favour of a firm in a case, the constitution of the firm is also intimated to the Tribunal when its power of attorney is filed—Notification: No. F. 161-AD(AT)/70, dated 8-5-1973.