Requirement of show cause notice: cancellation of GST registration invalid without prescribed FORM REG notice and hearing.
Cancellation of GST registration requires issuance of the prescribed show cause notice and an opportunity to be heard; Rule 22 mandates FORM GST REG-17 and a reply in FORM REG-18, and failure to issue the statutory notice renders a cancellation order procedurally defective and subject to fresh proceedings by the proper officer. (AI Summary)

Insider trading liability requires material price-sensitive information and an actual profit motive; mere possession is insufficient.
Regulation 3 prohibits insiders from dealing in securities or communicating unpublished price sensitive information while in possession of it; establishing a violation requires proof that the person was an insider with access to UPSI that was price sensitive and that the person traded or communicated the information. Materiality of price impact must be assessed by the realistic potential to affect market price, and liability also depends on the insider's purpose-transactions made under compelling financial necessity may not constitute insider trading despite possession of UPSI. (AI Summary)

Physical verification notice requirement under Rule 25 prevents cancellation where notice and FORM GST REG-30 upload were not complied with.
Rule 25 mandates that the proper officer must issue a notice before conducting physical verification and must upload the verification report, with photographs, in FORM GST REG-30 on the common portal within fifteen working days. The High Court found that where no notice was served and the FORM GST REG-30 upload within the specified period did not occur, the procedural requirement of Rule 25 was not complied with and cancellation predicated on such verification was unsustainable. (AI Summary)

Chartered Accountant duty limited: issuing a certification alone does not justify PMLA prosecution without evidence of culpable knowledge.
A chartered accountant's responsibility in issuing FORM 15CB is confined to examining and certifying the nature of the remittance and tax particulars, not to verifying the intrinsic genuineness of all client documents. Mere issuance of a certificate later used in a transaction identified with money laundering does not, without independent evidence of the accountant's knowledge, intent, or participation, constitute a sufficient basis for prosecution under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. (AI Summary)

Moratorium under insolvency code bars customs from enforcing seizure or sale; customs can only quantify claims for distribution.
Once a moratorium under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code applies, customs authorities may determine the quantum of duty to lodge a claim but cannot enforce recovery by seizure, sale, confiscation or claim a transfer of title; customs claims must be adjudicated and ranked under the Code's liquidation distribution regime and not executed in a manner that circumvents the moratorium or statutory priority rules. (AI Summary)

Raw material classification: oxygen used in steelmaking is a refining agent, not eligible for concessional tax rate.
The Supreme Court applied the rule that an input is a raw material only if it is incorporated into and found in the finished product; because oxygen's primary function in steelmaking is to reduce carbon and serve as a refining agent rather than to form part of the end product, oxygen cannot be treated as raw material and therefore is not eligible for the concessional sales tax rate reserved for raw-material inputs. (AI Summary)

NDH-1 filing requirement: timely statutory return for Nidhi companies to certify compliance and avoid deposit restrictions.
Every Nidhi must file Form NDH-1 with the Registrar within the prescribed period after the first financial year, certified by a practising company secretary, chartered accountant, or cost accountant. The form requires member and capital particulars, computation of Net Owned Funds, details of unencumbered deposits and deposit break-ups, and attachments including member lists with PAN and addresses; it must be digitally signed by authorised officers and is processed in STP mode, with fees based on nominal share capital and scaled additional fees for late filing. (AI Summary)

Notice under section 143(2) mandatory after a section 148 reopening; missing notice renders reassessment void.
Issuance of a notice under section 143(2) is mandatory before processing a return filed in response to a section 148 reopening notice; non issuance is a non curable procedural defect and renders any assessment made without that notice void ab initio, notwithstanding subsequent audit reports, alleged discrepancies, or proposals to withdraw exemption. (AI Summary)

Right to Information permits access to existing public records but does not serve as a forum for grievance redressal.
Right to information under the Act permits access to existing records held by or under the control of a public authority, including inspection and certified copies, but does not obligate authorities to create or obtain reasons, opinions or advice. Information Commissions perform confined administrative functions - verifying whether information was provided, whether denial was justified, and whether action under the Act is warranted - and do not have judicial power to adjudicate disputes or provide grievance redressal, which must be pursued before appropriate forums. (AI Summary)

Unjust enrichment test for GST refunds requires proof that tax incidence was not passed to others before refund.
The doctrine of unjust enrichment conditions GST refunds on proof that the refund will not result in an inequitable benefit by passing tax incidence to others; most claims must satisfy this test and sanctioned refunds are transferred to the Consumer Welfare Fund. Specified exceptions exist (including accumulated input tax credit, exports, wrongly paid tax, supplies not provided, and refund vouchers), and applicants may rebut the presumption of passing on incidence. Administrative thresholds permit self-declaration for smaller claims and require an accountant's certificate for larger claims. (AI Summary)

Stay on insolvency admission suspends IRP powers and prevents restoration of pre-admission management, allowing limited essential payments.
A stay of an admission order under the Code renders that admission order inoperative for the interim and restrains powers that flowed from it; the IRP cannot exercise functions conferred by the stayed admission and the corporate debtor is not restored to its pre-admission management. To preserve going-concern operations, designated company officials may make payments of wages and essential expenses as earlier practiced, subject to weekly disclosure to the IRP and the suspended managing director, while other payments require leave of the appellate authority. (AI Summary)

Interest-free security deposits are not taxable as a service when held solely as refundable security against client default.
The Tribunal concluded that interest-free security deposits collected from clients for trading of shares do not represent the value of any taxable service, because they are held purely as refundable security to guard against client default and are not consideration for a service. (AI Summary)

Classification of alcoholic liquor as non-food: job work in manufacture attracts GST at the standard rate.
Alcoholic liquor for human consumption is excluded from the category of food or food products for GST exemption purposes; job work services in relation to manufacture of such liquor are taxable at the standard GST rate under the job-work notification, and that taxation has been applied retrospectively to the start of the GST regime. (AI Summary)

Tax authority duty: ensure lawful, transparent decisions to prevent unjustified tax demands and reduce avoidable litigation.
Tax authorities must act within the authority of law, ensuring notice, hearing and clear specification of taxable event, measure, rate and incidence; taxes imposed without lawful basis constitute unjustified or unlawful collections. A transparent, accountable and fact based decision process-free from unscientific targets, ego driven conduct and lack of oversight-is necessary to curb undue tax demands, reduce avoidable litigation and preserve the legitimacy of revenue administration. (AI Summary)

Restoration of struck off companies restores legal existence, validating tax assessment notices and enabling recovery of liabilities.
Section 248 permits the Registrar to strike off a company's name after prescribed notice and safeguards, while struck off status does not extinguish the company's liabilities or directors' accountability. Section 252 enables Tribunal restoration, which operates to place the company in the same position as if it had not been struck off, and Section 250 preserves existence for discharging liabilities; consequently tax notices issued during strike off may be validated by retrospective restoration. (AI Summary)

GST registration cancellation and preservation of transitional credit - restoration permitted to enable transition of input tax credit.
Section 29(3) of the CGST Act preserves a person's liability and pre cancellation entitlements; when voluntary cancellation prevents transition of input tax credit, procedural relief in the form of permitting a physical application for restoration of GST registration may be granted to enable the taxpayer to transit transitional credit into the GST regime. (AI Summary)

Assessing officer succession: new AO may continue proceedings from predecessor's stage; fresh reassessment notice not required.
Section 129 permits a successor Assessing Officer to continue proceedings from the stage left by the predecessor, while the assessee may demand reopening of prior steps or rehearing before any assessment order. A subsequent reassessment notice after AO transfer was unnecessary where reasons had already been furnished following the initial notice; the assessment was based on the initial notice and a later notice does not automatically supplant it. (AI Summary)

Anti profiteering authority replaced: competition body now enforces input tax pass through and CGST rule changes.
Competition Commission has been notified to assume section 171 functions from 01.12.2022, replacing the National Anti Profiteering Authority; CGST Rules have been amended to omit provisions creating the prior Authority and to recast its duties as functions. RBI has designated GSTN as a Financial Information Provider under the Account Aggregator framework with GSTR 1 and GSTR 3B as specified financial information. Rule 96 has been revised to allow withholding and data analytics based verification of IGST refunds, transmission of system generated RFD 01 claims to jurisdictional officers, and processing under rule 89 with due diligence and post audit. (AI Summary)

Jurisdiction over pre GST transitional credit: GST adjudication cannot assess admissibility of erstwhile CENVAT credit.
The High Court held that Section 73 of the CGST Act, which pertains to wrongly availed input tax credit under the CGST framework, does not confer power on GST adjudicating authorities to determine admissibility of CENVAT credit originating under the pre GST Excise and Finance Act regimes; consequently, initiation of proceedings and orders under Section 73 to disallow credit carried forward via TRAN 1 for alleged contraventions of erstwhile laws exceeded jurisdiction and were quashed. (AI Summary)

Access to business premises enables authorised officers to inspect records and require production of books for audit and verification.
Section 71 permits a proper officer authorised in writing by the Additional/Joint Commissioner to access business premises to inspect books, documents, computers, programs and other things for audit, scrutiny, verification and checks. The person in charge must produce declared records, trial balance, audited financial statements where applicable, cost audit and income-tax audit reports and other relevant records within a reasonable time, ordinarily not exceeding fifteen working days from demand, subject to extensions permitted by the requisitioning authority. (AI Summary)