GST Appellate Tribunal appointment criteria updated to raise age and experience thresholds, aligning with tribunal reform provisions.
The CGST (2nd Amendment) Bill, 2023 aligns GST Appellate Tribunal appointment and tenure provisions with the Tribunal Reforms Act by prescribing ten years' substantial indirect tax litigation experience for judicial members, a minimum age of fifty for appointment, age ceilings of seventy for the President and sixty-seven for members with limited reappointment. CBIC granted procedural relief by extending the GSTR-3B due date for cyclone-affected districts and clarified that secondment taxability requires case-by-case contract analysis while Section 74(1) can be invoked only where material evidence of fraud or wilful suppression exists. (AI Summary)

Tribunal status test: disciplinary boards lacking a lis or transferred judicial power fall outside Article 227 supervision.
Whether a professional disciplinary board qualifies as a tribunal under Article 227 turns on three cumulative indicia: existence of a lis, transfer of state judicial power, and adjudicative functions that determine parties' rights. Disciplinary complaints to professional bodies are regulatory and investigative; complainants are not plaintiffs asserting private rights, and such boards may initiate suo motu inquiries. Bodies lacking adjudication of contested private rights or statutory vesting of judicial power do not meet the tribunal test and thus fall outside Article 227's supervisory scope. (AI Summary)

Exempt allowances reduce taxable salary when statutory conditions and documentary proof are satisfied, aiding tax-efficient pay structuring.
Exempt allowances reduce taxable salary when statutory conditions and documentary proof are met. Core items include HRA, computed by comparing actual HRA, a percentage of basic salary and rent paid minus ten percent of basic; Transport Allowance, capped by formula with special rates for disabled personnel; Children's Education and Hostel Allowances limited per child; meal concessions non taxable up to a per meal employer cost; entertainment allowance relief for government employees only; deductible professional tax; LTA exemptions for domestic travel subject to prescribed class of travel ceilings; fully exempt job related reimbursements; and employer borne medical expenses and approved insurance premiums when incurred in prescribed hospitals or schemes. (AI Summary)

Input Tax Credit entitlement stands where Section 16(2) conditions are met, despite supplier-buyer return mismatches.
Availability of Input Tax Credit depends on satisfying the conditions in Section 16(2), including possession of invoices, receipt of goods or services, payment of tax, and return filing. If a buyer meets these conditions and can substantiate payment with invoices and bank records, discrepancies between seller and buyer returns do not alone permit reversal of credit. Tax authorities must first act against the supplying dealer unless exceptional circumstances such as collusion, the supplier being untraceable, ceased business, or lack of assets are established before directing reversal by the buyer. (AI Summary)

Blocking of Input Tax Credit must rest on material evidence and written reasons, with a hearing before debit disallowance.
Blocking of input tax credit under Rule 86A requires the officer to have reasons to believe, based on material evidence, that credit was fraudulently availed or is ineligible under the sub rule (1) grounds, and such reasons must be duly recorded in writing before disallowing debit from the electronic credit ledger. The power must be exercised cautiously and objectively; if the taxpayer produces supporting documents, the officer must have a strong written case and provide an opportunity to be heard before blocking ITC. (AI Summary)

Inverted duty structure: taxpayer entitled to refund where supplier erroneously charged higher input tax, with interest.
A taxpayer is entitled to a refund under the Inverted Duty Structure where input tax was erroneously charged by the supplier at a higher rate than the rate applicable to the output supply; the excess input tax is refundable and carries interest. The appellate order granting refund was upheld, the writ petition dismissed, and the revenue was directed to pass and deposit the refund with interest within the prescribed period. (AI Summary)

Undervaluation claims based on differing MRP across ports are infirm when no evidence of uniform sale price.
The Tribunal held that differing printed MRPs on identical consignments imported through different ports do not, without evidence of uniform resale price, establish undervaluation for levy of additional duty. It emphasized that MRP may legitimately vary by place of importation and other factors, and that demands for differential duty issued without challenging or modifying the original self assessed Bills of Entry through appropriate reassessment procedures are unsustainable. (AI Summary)

Extraordinary jurisdiction under Article 226 cannot substitute for an unavailed statutory appeal remedy under time bound rules.
Extraordinary supervisory jurisdiction under Article 226 cannot replace an available statutory appeal remedy; the High Court will not grant writ relief where the appellant has failed to avail the time bound appellate remedy under Section 107 and has not pleaded any breach of natural justice, jurisdictional defect, or vires challenge. When statute prescribes a specific limitation and a defined condonation window, writ jurisdiction will not be used to extend that period absent exceptional circumstances. (AI Summary)

Market value: constrained sales lacking open market willingness do not establish market price; use open market supply rates.
Where transactional restraints or obligations effectively compel a sale to a particular purchaser, the resulting price is not the market value. Market value is the price agreed between an independent buyer and seller in the open market where willingness to buy and sell exists and price is set by ordinary supply and demand. In pricing of supplied power, the market value should be measured by rates available to comparable consumers in the open market, not by inter party or obligation driven rates. (AI Summary)

Cancellation of GST registration without hearing invalid; registration restoration ordered and statutory returns compliance required.
Cancellation of GST registration issued without an opportunity of personal hearing and without stating reasons violates principles of natural justice; such an order is legally unsustainable and void, requiring restoration of the registration and directing the registrant to comply with statutory provisions by filing returns and discharging applicable tax liabilities. (AI Summary)

Option in ITR 6 creates substantive right - seek condonation and extension of CBDT circular relief to all years.
Request for directions to condone delay in filing Form 10 IC under Section 115BAA and to extend the application of CBDT Circular No. 19/2023 to all assessment years from AY 2020 21 onward. The petitioner asserts that electing the option in ITR 6 creates a substantive right to the concessional tax rate, that portal technical failures in the first year prevented filing or saving Form 10 IC despite timely ITRs, and that CBDT's subsequent extensions and circular language support relief for multiple years; a clarification is sought to prevent ongoing litigation. (AI Summary)

Rectification of GST returns: permit correction when IGST was claimed instead of CGST and SGST, subject to hearing.
Whether a return may be corrected when Input Tax Credit in GSTR 3B was erroneously accounted as IGST instead of CGST and SGST. The petitioner sought treatment of a representation as a rectification application, refund of the IGST credit recorded, and re allocation of that credit to CGST and SGST liabilities. The court directed that the Representation be treated as a formal rectification application and the tax authorities decide it in accordance with law after affording a proper hearing. (AI Summary)

Capital gains exemption on Sovereign Gold Bonds with taxable interest, issuance rules, subscription limits, and early redemption option.
Sovereign Gold Bonds grant capital gains exemption on redemption for individuals and indexation benefits on transfer, while interest is taxable. Eligible resident subscribers include individuals, HUFs, trusts, universities and charitable institutions. SGBs are issued in gram denominations for an eight year tenor with premature redemption after the fifth year; minimum investment is one gram and annual subscription ceilings per fiscal year apply with self declaration. A fixed nominal interest is paid semiannually. Issue and redemption prices are set in rupees using the three day IBJA average closing gold price, with an online payment discount on issue. (AI Summary)

Bail in input tax credit fraud: court conditioned release on cooperation, sureties, passport surrender and travel restriction.
The High Court noted the accused was cooperative, had attended multiple summons and given statements, and that authorities had not sought police remand nor alleged flight risk or tampering; while not opining on merits, the Court authorised release on bail subject to conditions including a personal bond with solvent sureties, verification of sureties, strict cooperation with investigation and trial, prohibition on interfering with witnesses, surrender of passport or affidavit of non possession, and permission before leaving the jurisdiction. (AI Summary)

Fair hearing entitlement from portal technical defects requires remand for fresh adjudication and correction of notice hosting.
The assessment order was set aside and remitted because the taxpayer failed to notice communications placed in a different GST portal menu, depriving the taxpayer of a fair opportunity to respond to discrepancies noted in assessment-related forms; the revenue authority was directed to rectify the portal's duplicate notice-hosting menus and to reconsider the matter on merits. (AI Summary)

Withdrawal of tax exemption preserves loss set off and carry forward when timely declaration opts out for that assessment year.
Dispute concerns the procedure and effect of opting out under subsection (8) of section 10B: withdrawing exemption permits recognition, set off and carry forward of losses and, read with the General Clauses Act, the phrase "any of the relevant assessment years" allows year-by-year declarations filed before the return due date; belated declarations and revised returns filed after an original return claiming exemption may be treated as afterthoughts undermining the withdrawal claim. (AI Summary)

Transitional preservation of pre-GST VAT laws allowed limited amendments but post-GST state VAT changes exceeded legislative competence.
The Amendment created a new concurrent legislative field for taxation of supplies through Article 246A and provided a limited transitional saving via Section 19 that temporarily preserved pre-existing central and state indirect tax laws and authorised their amendment or repeal. Once the Amendment took effect, states lacked competence to enact substantive VAT changes except within the temporal and substantive limits preserved by the transitional provision; amendments made after the GST commencement date that exceeded that competence were constitutionally invalid. (AI Summary)

Custodian regulation: registration, fitness and conduct rules impose segregation, reporting, recordkeeping and audit obligations for custodial services.
A custodian is a body corporate providing safekeeping and incidental services for client securities, goods and related instruments; registration requires prescribed applications, fees and certified asset statements. Eligibility hinges on net worth, infrastructure, approvals, competent staff, documented systems, fitness and absence of disqualifying conduct. Certificates are conditional on capital fulfilment, Board approval for control changes, compliance with law, client agreements, annual fees and timely correction of false information. Custodians must segregate custodial services, maintain separate client accounts and records, appoint a compliance officer, permit Board inspections and audits, retain responsibility where functions are delegated, and resolve disputes through prescribed mechanisms. (AI Summary)

GST annual return filing requires form-specific reconciliation, portal reconciliation, payment of dues, and authenticated online submission.
GSTR-9 is the annual GST return reporting supplies, turnover and audit details; GSTR-9C reconciles annual return figures with audited financial statements and GSTR-9A applies to composition taxpayers. The filing process requires downloading portal summaries, determining nil-return eligibility, populating and reconciling portal-populated tables, previewing drafts, calculating and paying liabilities and late fees, and final submission via digital signature or OTP-based e-verification. (AI Summary)

Input Tax Credit denial cannot rest on ledger mismatch; supplier inquiry required before reversing credit.
A recipient's claim to Input Tax Credit cannot be summarily disallowed solely based on a mismatch between Form GSTR-3B and Form GSTR-2A; revenue must verify supplier reporting and conduct before directing reversal, particularly where the recipient asserts satisfaction of conditions under Section 16(2) of the CGST Act. (AI Summary)