Income Tax : SC upheld Section 147 reassessment, holding a Section 143(1) intimation is not an assessment and reopening requires a bona fide re...
Goods and Services Tax : Supreme Court upheld Section 69 GST arrest powers, requiring recorded reasons, CrPC safeguards, CBIC instructions and limiting arr...
Income Tax : The Supreme Court held excise duty paid by buyers formed part of turnover, discussed colourable devices, and distinguished legitim...
Corporate Law : A non-speaking dismissal of an SLP does not affirm the High Court's reasoning or constitute law under Article 141. The doctrine of...
Corporate Law : The Supreme Court ruled that summoning hotel booking records and call detail records to prove adultery does not violate privacy, a...
Corporate Law : The Supreme Court upheld joint insolvency proceedings against two interconnected real estate companies due to common management an...
Corporate Law : Supreme Court ruled that CoC and RP can surrender financially burdensome assets voluntarily, clarifying moratorium under section 1...
Corporate Law : SC clarifies limits of High Court's writ powers in IBC cases and recognises Indian CIRP as foreign main proceeding in cross-border...
Corporate Law : Justice BR Gavai sworn in as India's 52nd Chief Justice. Focus areas include addressing case pendency and improving court infrastr...
Corporate Law : Key IBC case law updates from Oct-Dec 2024, covering Supreme Court and High Court decisions on CoC powers, resolution plans, relat...
Corporate Law : SC set aside the PMLA cognizance order as the accused was not heard under the first proviso to Section 223(1) BNSS before cognizan...
Corporate Law : Supreme Court dismissed a miscellaneous application challenging its signed order, holding it not maintainable and imposing ₹2,00...
Income Tax : Supreme Court modified compensation by reassessing a self-employed deceased’s annual income after considering ITRs and business ...
Corporate Law : SC allowed the appeal and granted NDPS bail after holding that a case for bail was made out, subject to Trial Court conditions....
Corporate Law : SC held a Ministers statement binds the Government only if it reflects the Governments view and declined to issue speech guideline...
Corporate Law : The Bill seeks to amend Articles 15 and 16 to allow reservation for backward classes proportionate to their population identified ...
Fema / RBI : RBI directs banks, NBFCs, and other entities to implement Supreme Court’s accessibility guidelines for digital KYC, ensuring inc...
Income Tax : CBDT raises monetary limits for tax appeals: Rs. 60 lakh for ITAT, Rs. 2 crore for High Court, and Rs. 5 crore for Supreme Court, ...
Corporate Law : No restrictions on joint bank accounts or nominations for the queer community, as clarified by the Supreme Court and RBI in August...
Corporate Law : Supreme Court of India introduces new procedures for case adjournments effective 14th February 2024, detailing strict guidelines a...
Commissioner of Commercial Taxes & Ors. Vs. Chitrahar Traders- The buyer of Neyveli Lignite Corporation, a central government undertaking which was sold as scrap, was entitled to pay a lower sales tax, the Supreme Court ruled. It dismissed the appeal of the Commissioner of Commercial Taxes against the ruling of the Madras high court which stated that the levy should take into account that the machinery was total scrap. Since the plant and machinery had outlived its utility, the government appointed Metal Scrap and Trading Corporation Ltd, a government enterprise, to sell them as scrap. It arranged an e-auction in which Chitrahar Traders bid the highest amount. The revenue department then demanded 12 per cent and surcharge as sales tax stating that what was sold was plant and machinery; not scrap. The buyer contended that only 4 per cent could be levied at the rate stipulated for scrap. In fact, it had to use explosives to remove machinery embedded in earth since 1961 and which became utterly useless by 2001. The high court and the Supreme Court accepted the contention of the scrap buyer.
The Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal of New India Assurance Company which had rejected the claim of a ship-breaking firm for compensation. The firm bought a Belgian vessel and was bringing it from Singapore on its ‘funeral voyage’ to Alang port in Gujarat for demolition. It wrecked on way in high seas due to bad weather. The ship was covered by marine insurance and the ship-breaker invoked the policy. The insurer rejected the claim leading to litigation in the consumer forum. The National Consumer Commission asked the insurance company to pay Rs 14 crore with 9 per cent interest to Priya Blue Industries, the scrap dealer in ships. However, the insurer appealed to the Supreme Court. It ruled that the loss suffered due to the ship wreck was properly assessed by the surveyors and the commission order was correct.
Siddachalam Exports Private Limited vs Commissioner of Central Excise, Delhi-III [SUPREME COURT OF INDIA- Duty drawback – goods had been over-valued with the intention of claiming undue draw-back amounts – instead of first determining the value of the goods on the basis of contemporaneous exports of identical goods, the Revenue erroneously resorted to a market enquiry – contemporaneous exports of identical goods was not available, the procedure laid down in Rules 5 to 8 of the 1988 Rules was required to be followed and market enquiry could be conducted only as a last resort – in the absence of any other independent evidence relating to market enquiry, there was no other corroborating evidence to support the allegation of inflation in FOB value – the matter is remitted back to the adjudicating authority for fresh consideration in accordance with law.
K.K. Velusamy Vs. N. Palanisamy (Supreme Court) – A compact disc containing recording of telephone conversation could be valid evidence according to Section 3 of the Evidence Act and Section 2(t) of the Information Technology Act, the Supreme Court has stated in the case, K K Velusamy vs N Palanisamy. One of the parties in a suit over sale of property produced a CD in the court as evidence. The opposite party objected to its validity as evidence, arguing that the recordings were created with the help of mimicry specialists. In this context, the Supreme Court stated that electronically recorded conversation is admissible in evidence, if the conversation is relevant to the matter in issue and the voice is identified and the accuracy of the recorded conversation is proved by eliminating the possibility of erasure, addition or manipulation. A CD recording of a relevant conversation is comparable to a photograph of a relevant incident.
The Supreme Court allowed the appeal of Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India and upheld the acquisition of land in Etawa, Uttar Pradesh for a project. The complaint of the land losers was that the award of compensation for the acquisition was not given within the prescribed one year from the declaration. The Supreme Court ruled that though there was delay in the award, the acquisition itself did not lapse according to the provisions of the Railways Act. However, the court further said that the delay will entitle the land losers to get additional compensation at a rate not less than 5 per cent of the value of the award for each month of delay.
Whether ‘royalty’ determined under Sections 9/15(3) of the Mines and Minerals (Regulation & Development) Act, 1957 (Act 67 of 1957, as amended) is in the nature of tax?
Binod Kumar Versus State of Jharkhand & Others- In the impugned judgment, it is mentioned that the basic allegation is amassing of illicit wealth by various former Ministers, including a former Chief Minister of the State. The money alleged to have been so earned is of unprecedented amounts. However, there is no clear allegation so far about its laundering in the sense mentioned above, but there is an allegation of its investment in property, shares etc. not only in India but also abroad.
The second respondent (referred to as the `Developer’) entered into a development agreement with the owners of certain lands at Bachupally village, Qutubullapur Mandal, Ranga Reddy District, for constructing independent houses and multistoried Apartment buildings with common facilities in a layout known as `Hill County township’. The landowners as the first party, the developer as the second party and the first respondent who wanted to acquire an apartment therein as the third party entered into an agreement for sale dated 16.10.2006 under which the land-owners agreed to sell an undivided share equivalent to 87 sq.yds. out of a total extent of 16.95 acres to the first respondent and the developer agreed to construct a residential apartment measuring 1889 sq.ft. for the first respondent. The total consideration for the undivided share in the land, apartment and car parking space was agreed as Rs.55,89,368. The agreement contemplating the entire price being paid in installments, that is 10% on booking, 85% in seven instalments upto 15.3.2008 and 5% at the time of delivery. Clause (14) of the said agreement dated 16.10.2006 provided for settlement of disputes by arbitration.
Assistant Commercial Taxes Officer Versus M/s Makkad Plastic Agencies- The assessment of the assessee-respondent for the Assessment Year 2001-02 was completed by the Assessing Officer under Section 29(7) of the Rajasthan Sales Tax Act, 1994 [for short “the Act of 1994”] holding that the tax on “thermo ware” and “vacuum ware”, which were the articles sold by the assessee-respondent during the relevant assessment year, should be levied Sales Tax at 10 per cent instead of 8 per cent, treating them as separate articles from plastic goods/products. Consequently, the liability of difference of tax at 2 per cent along with surcharge, interest and penalty was also levied.
SC rejects claim of firms using HSD in captive units- The Supreme Court (SC) has dismissed a batch of appeals by various companies claiming credit of duty paid on high speed diesel oil used in their captive electricity generating plants. The Rajasthan high court had earlier rejected their contention in the case, Sangam Spinners Ltd vs Union of India. Their argument was that they had acquired accrued and vested right and it could not be taken away retrospectively by an Act of Parliament, in this case, the Finance Act, 2000. Since the companies were unable to pass on the burden to the customers, they would have to bear the entire burden themselves, and that too retrospectively, and therefore such a provision violated Article 14 of the Constitution (equality). The revenue authorities, on the other hand, contended that the 2000 Act was not a validating Act, but explanatory in nature in order to clarify and put in proper perspective the legal position as some tribunals had misinterpreted departmental notifications. The Supreme Court ruled that the subsequent changes made by Parliament were clarificatory and the companies were not entitled to the credit of duty.
