Business income characterization of interest: grants expended from such interest qualify as deductible business expenditure.
Interest earned on surplus funds is business income when arising in the ordinary course and grants made from that interest which are non refundable and applied to the corporation's objects are applications of income and allowable as business expenditure against that interest. Taxable income must be computed on principles of commercial accountancy by deducting permissible business expenses to ascertain real profits; distributions are distinct from deductions. The article criticises revenue officers for initiating unnecessary litigation and making additions or disallowances that inflate assessed income instead of objectively computing real income. (AI Summary)

Business risk management guides alco-beverage firms to restructure operations and adopt home-delivery and cost-rationalisation measures.
The article identifies Covid-19 as causing operational, financial and demand shocks to the alco-beverage sector, requiring health and safety measures, workforce management, production adaptation, and strong cash and working-capital management. Firms should pursue product diversification, home-delivery and e-commerce distribution, and cost rationalisation, while strengthening brand portfolios, operational controls and digital tools to enhance resilience and position for post-pandemic recovery. (AI Summary)

Authorization for assignment requirement mandates IPA-issued clearance before insolvency professionals accept assignments, shaping regulatory oversight and renewal.
Regulation 7A requires insolvency professionals to obtain a valid authorization for assignment from their IPA, subject to renewal and specified eligibility criteria; Model Regulation 12A prescribes issuance, fees, validity and an appeal mechanism. The High Court upheld the Board's authority to frame these norms, found prescribed criteria and a two tier regulatory structure permissible, observed that the measures uniformly regulate professionals to maintain standards rather than deprive practice rights, and suggested the appeal time limit may be reconsidered. (AI Summary)

Concurrent remedies: allottee may pursue consumer protection rights alongside RERA remedies, choice remains with the allottee.
RERA offers an allottee the unqualified option to obtain refund with prescribed interest or, alternatively, interest for delayed possession; this remedy is expressly without prejudice to other remedies. The Act's proviso permitting withdrawal of pre-existing consumer proceedings gives an option, not a compulsion to transfer. RERA's exclusion of civil court jurisdiction does not bar consumer fora, and registration under RERA does not by itself defer contractual entitlement to possession. Remedies under consumer protection law and RERA are concurrent and must be harmoniously read. (AI Summary)

Unconditional stay of arbitral awards where prima facie fraud or corruption is found, pending challenge resolution.
The Ordinance adds a proviso to section 36(3) providing that if the court is satisfied prima facie that the arbitration agreement or the making of the award was induced by fraud or corruption, it shall stay the award unconditionally pending disposal of the challenge under section 34; this proviso is treated as effective from the substitution of section 36 in October 2015 and applies to all court cases arising from arbitral proceedings. The Ordinance also substitutes section 43J to allow regulations to specify arbitrator accreditation norms and omits the Eighth Schedule. (AI Summary)

Arrest power under GST may be exercised on an objective reason to believe, with mandatory arrest memo compliance.
The term reason to believe demands an objective, justifiable assessment based on information; revenue officers effecting administrative arrests are not police and should lodge written complaints, not FIRs. Arrest powers may be exercised prior to completion of departmental adjudication when a reason to believe exists, and preparation of a valid, exhaustive arrest memo is mandatory, with adherence to established judicial guidelines on arrest procedures. (AI Summary)

GST revenue recovery and compliance relaxations restore filing flexibility while preserving verification safeguards and administrative coordination.
The GST regime shows revenue recovery driven by imports and domestic transactions and greater e-invoice uptake; compliance relaxations include extensions for annual return and reconciliation filings, optional filing thresholds for smaller taxpayers, OTP-based NIL filings, phased withdrawal of EVC for companies, and SMS filing for NIL composition statements. Administrative measures include central borrowing to address compensation shortfalls and CBIC instructions coordinating defence of adverse court orders, with a call for more professional and independent advance rulings. (AI Summary)

Supply of services by resident associations: member contributions treated as taxable supply; exemption limited by per member threshold.
Contributions collected by a homeowners' association are consideration for services (maintenance and common-area benefits) supplied to members and constitute a supply in the course of business and are taxable under GST; exemption under the notification applies only where individual member contributions do not exceed the per-member monthly threshold, input tax credit is available subject to statutory restrictions, and separately collected corpus funds are not exigible to GST. (AI Summary)

Exempt supply in composite supply: treat exempt elements separately to preserve exemption and avoid unintended taxation.
Exempt supplies should not be absorbed into the tax net merely because they accompany taxable supplies as part of a composite supply; the composite-supply concept aims to simplify classification of integrated taxable elements, not to undermine exemptions. Conflicting advance rulings-one extending exemption from an exempt principal to ancillary supplies, another rejecting composite treatment where an element is exempt-demonstrate the need for clear administrative guidance to preserve exemptions and avoid undue taxation and litigation. (AI Summary)

HSN code reporting requirements updated; SMS return filing and expanded audit and form amendments affect compliance obligations.
Amendments empower the Board to mandate or exempt specified classes from mentioning prescribed digits of the HSN code on invoices; expand SMS filing (including NIL returns) to additional return types verified by registered mobile OTP; extend audit and reconciliation requirements to cover the subsequent financial year with certified FORM GSTR 9C; suspend certain EWB Part A restrictions for a defined period where returns were not filed; and make communication of DRC 01A details by the proper officer permissive rather than mandatory. Numerous forms (GSTR 1, GSTR 2A, GSTR 5, GSTR 5A, GSTR 9, GSTR 9C and multiple DRC/ASMT tables) are revised to reflect these reporting and procedural changes. (AI Summary)

Maintainability of CIRP applications depends on completeness, absence of disqualifying defects, and correct legal characterisation of debt.
Applications for initiating CIRP must be complete, accompanied by prescribed fee, and free from disqualifying factors such as a pending disciplinary case against the proposed interim resolution professional; the Adjudicating Authority may allow brief rectification but may reject filings with persistent defects. Maintainability has been denied where operational claims lacked transactional evidence or pre-existing disputes were shown, where limitation periods barred the claim, where Section 10A's COVID suspension covered the default date, where claims did not qualify as operational or financial debt, or where material discrepancies in financial records remained unexplained. (AI Summary)

Minimum requirements for MBBS admissions require a functional multi speciality hospital and enhanced educational units to improve training quality.
The Minimum Requirements for Annual MBBS Admissions Regulations 2020 establish baseline standards for new and expanding medical colleges, requiring specified student centric spaces, a skills laboratory, a Medical Education Unit, student counselling services, visiting faculty provisions, two additional teaching departments, and the availability of a fully functional multi speciality teaching hospital at application; building works must meet bye laws and physical verification of infrastructure and staffing will be carried out at prescribed renewal stages until MBBS recognition is granted. (AI Summary)

Mandatory penalty under customs law requires prior determination of duty liability before equal penalty can be imposed.
Section 28 authorises determination and recovery of unpaid or short paid customs duty by show cause notice; section 114A prescribes a mandatory equal penalty where under levy arises from collusion or wilful misstatement, but its application is contingent on a prior determination of duty or interest liability under section 28. A show cause notice issued in the context of confiscation proceedings without finalized bills of entry does not, by itself, invoke section 114A, and in such circumstances penalty provisions under section 112 may be applied instead. (AI Summary)

Notional interest inclusion in GST: where refundable deposit influences consideration, notional interest forms part of taxable value.
Applicability of GST to notional interest on refundable security deposits depends on whether the deposit or notional interest operates as consideration under Section 15. A refundable deposit returned in full is not consideration, but any portion retained and applied as compensation becomes part of the taxable value. Inclusion of notional interest requires a factual nexus showing the deposit influenced the contract price, so valuation is determined case by case by examining contract terms and whether the deposit reduced periodic charges. (AI Summary)

Striking off LLP names requires statutory notice, asset safeguards, and compliance with prescribed filing and affidavit requirements.
The Registrar may strike an LLP's name where it is not carrying on business, after notice on the Ministry website and an opportunity to be heard, ensuring assets and liabilities are provided for and obtaining undertakings if necessary, with Gazette publication effecting dissolution; designated partners' liabilities continue. An LLP may voluntarily apply for striking off by filing the prescribed electronic form with overdue returns, a certified nil assets/liabilities statement, affidavits, bank and tax confirmations, consents and indemnities, and required attachments, after which the Registrar places details on the Ministry website and may order striking off following the public notice period. (AI Summary)

E-way bill requirement: movement of goods mandates electronic generation before transport, with specified exemptions and generation rules.
E-Way Bill is an electronic document required before transport of goods when consignments exceed the prescribed threshold; it is generated on the common portal (or via SMS, app, API), issues a unique EBN and is available to supplier, recipient and transporter. Mandatory generation rules, parties authorised to generate, required invoice and transporter details, distance-based validity rules (including a special regime for over-dimensional cargo), and specified exemptions and categories of goods that require bills irrespective of value (such as principal-to-job-worker movements and handicraft consignments from exempt suppliers) are described. (AI Summary)

Transition of education and related cesses: denial of carryforward as ineligible duties under GST restricts input credit claims.
The Madras High Court held that unutilised Education Cess, Secondary and Higher Education Cess and Krishi Kalyan Cess could not be carried forward or set off against GST output liability under Section 140 of the CGST Act, 2017 because they were not eligible duties for transitional credit. The author contests this, citing prior TRU explanatory notes, Tribunal decisions on Cenvat utilization, notifications and circulars indicating subsumption or continuation, and argues restriction on cross utilisation alone should not render an otherwise eligible duty ineligible. (AI Summary)

Interest on delayed GST payments limited to cash component when sufficient input tax credit exists, not on credited ITC.
The High Court held that interest under Section 50, which compensates the revenue for deprivation of tax funds, is triggered by belated cash remittance and not by amounts standing as input tax credit in the electronic credit ledger; therefore interest is chargeable on the cash component paid belatedly and not on tax adjusted through available ITC. The CBIC clarified that related Notification was prospective and no retrospective recoveries will be made. (AI Summary)

Cheque dishonour liability: statutory presentation, notice and payment requirements shape criminal prosecution and bail considerations.
Criminal liability for cheque dishonour arises when a cheque issued for a legally enforceable debt is returned unpaid for insufficiency or arrangement limits, provided the cheque was timely presented, a written demand was made within thirty days of notice of dishonour, and payment was not made within fifteen days; lack of belief about potential dishonour is not a defence. Procedural rules require a written complaint for cognizance, limit trial venue to specified magistrates and territorial branches, and permit courts to order interim compensation while applying ordinary bail principles and categories in considering pretrial release. (AI Summary)

GST refund procedures: claimants must meet prescribed eligibility, documentation and validation requirements to secure input tax or IGST refunds.
Refunds under the GST regime are governed by Section 54 and related rules, distinguishing claims for zero-rated supplies, exports with tax payment, SEZ supplies, and unutilized input tax credit. Eligibility and computation follow prescribed formulas and forms, require validation of shipping and invoice data with customs EDI, and exclude certain items like duty drawback and, under rules, ITC on capital goods. Practical issues include invoice mismatches, differing high-court rulings on input services credit, and departmental recovery for erroneous refunds. (AI Summary)