Section 154 - Deduction in case of a person with disability
A resident individual certified with disability receives a fixed deduction of ₹75,000, increased to ₹1.25 lakh for severe disability.
Reviewed by CA Nikhil Gupta · Updated 9 October 2026
Current law and effective date
Section 154 is controlled against the consolidated Income-tax Act, 2025 as amended by the Finance Act, 2026. The Act and Income-tax Rules, 2026 operate from 1 April 2026; earlier years and saved proceedings require the repeal-and-savings framework rather than automatic migration.
Primary statute: Income Tax Department consolidated Act | Rules: Notified Income-tax Rules, 2026
2-minute decode
A resident individual certified with disability receives a fixed deduction of ₹75,000, increased to ₹1.25 lakh for severe disability.
Who should use this section
Resident individuals holding the prescribed disability certification for themselves, including severe-disability cases.
Old-law bridge
Section 80U
The old-law bridge is navigational, not automatic precedent transfer. Match the 1961 Act wording, saved proceedings, current 2025 Act text and effective date before importing an older interpretation.
Finance Act 2026 / current-law note
No section-specific Finance Act, 2026 textual substitution is separately flagged for section 154; the consolidated post-Finance-Act-2026 text remains the controlling version and must be used instead of pre-1 April 2026 extracts.
Professional alert
Rule 61 and Form 30 or the prescribed disability form apply. Temporary certificates must be renewed when their validity expires.
Connected Income-tax Rules, 2026 and Forms
| Rule | Current control | Form |
|---|---|---|
| Rule 61 | Medical-authority disability certificate control | 30 / prescribed disability form |
Worked application
A resident individual with a valid severe-disability certificate claims the fixed ₹1.25 lakh deduction regardless of lower actual expenditure.
Evidence / compliance checklist
- Preserve the primary agreement, certificate, account statement or transaction record that establishes the facts relevant to section 154 (Deduction in case of a person with disability).
- Reconcile the section 154 amount to books, return schedules and third-party evidence so the computation can be reproduced without relying on a narrative assertion.
- Keep the current-law source and any prescribed Rule/Form evidence with the tax-year file for section 154; do not rely on a legacy 1961 Act form merely because the section has an old-law bridge.
- Where section 154 contains a threshold, election or time limit, retain dated evidence proving that the condition was satisfied before the return or proceeding was finalised.
Common mistake
A common section 154 error is to apply the old-law label or headline rate without rebuilding the current statutory conditions. For “Deduction in case of a person with disability”, the safer control is to test the exact taxpayer/transaction facts, the operative tax year, every linked Rule/Form and the Finance Act 2026 consolidated wording. Rule 61 and Form 30 or the prescribed disability form apply. Temporary certificates must be renewed when their validity expires.
Recommended approach
For section 154, start with the legal trigger in “Deduction in case of a person with disability”, document the evidence for that trigger, then run the computation or procedural step against the current text. As a cross-check, verify this provision-specific checkpoint: Fixed deduction for qualifying disability: Rs 75,000.
Thresholds, periods and timing checkpoints
- Fixed deduction for qualifying disability: Rs 75,000.
- Fixed deduction for severe disability: Rs 1,25,000.
- Certification validity and renewal must be checked.
Related provisions and interaction map
Section 154 sits within the Chapter VIII deduction framework; also test section 202 restrictions where relevant and the return/audit provisions governing this specific claim.
Current statutory text
Primary-source trail
Statute: Income-tax Act, 2025 as amended by Finance Act, 2026
Rules: Income-tax Rules, 2026
Law navigation: Income Tax Department 2025 Act / Rules hub
Quoting note: Use the official consolidated Act for verbatim legislative language.
FAQs
Does an old Income-tax Act, 1961 case automatically decide section 154?
No. The old-law bridge helps research, but transferability depends on materially matching language, transition rules and any Finance Act 2026 change.
Which text should be quoted in advice or litigation?
Quote the consolidated official statute for the relevant tax year. If this page presents a provision summary rather than complete statutory text, use the official consolidated Act for verbatim legislative language.