Outcome: The Special Leave Petitions were dismissed on the ground of delay as well as merits.

Issues: Whether an assessment for Assessment Year 2022-23 could validly rely on cash-deposit and fund-transfer entries pertaining to the subsequent financial year when the objection was not appropriately addressed in revision.

Analysis: The assessment related to Financial Year 2021-22, whereas the impugned addition was founded on transactions occurring from 04.05.2022 to 21.05.2022. The revision record itself noted that the relevant credits pertained to Financial Year 2022-23. The objection concerning the temporal relevance of those entries went to the root of the assessment but was not addressed in proper perspective.

Conclusion: Reliance upon subsequent-year entries without appropriately determining their relevance to the assessment year in question, along with inadequate consideration of that objection in revision, vitiated the assessment and revisional orders.

Issues: Whether the Tribunal was justified in declining to condone the delay and dismissing the assessee's appeal as time-barred and defective.

Analysis: The appeal before the Tribunal was filed after a delay of 2628 days without any application for condonation or satisfactory explanation. Despite repeated opportunities, the defects in the appeal were not rectified. The assessee's plea of lack of notice and ex-parte disposal was untenable because adjournment applications had been filed on its behalf through its directors. The contemporaneous record showed that the assessee had knowledge of the proceedings but failed to pursue them diligently. No sufficient cause for condonation was established.

Conclusion: The Tribunal was justified in refusing condonation and in treating the appeal as time-barred and defective.

Issues: (i) Whether specialised machinery used to manufacture solar photovoltaic modules qualified as apparatus for drawing circuit patterns on sensitised semiconductor materials under Sl. No. 12 of Notification No. 24/2005-Customs dated 01.03.2005; (ii) Whether Solar PV Backsheets having a PVF layer qualified as multilayered sheets with tedlar base under Sl. No. 18 of Notification No. 25/1999-Customs dated 28.02.1999; (iii) Whether confiscation, redemption fine and penalty could be sustained for the imported goods.

Issue (i): Whether specialised machinery used to manufacture solar photovoltaic modules qualified as apparatus for drawing circuit patterns on sensitised semiconductor materials under Sl. No. 12 of Notification No. 24/2005-Customs dated 01.03.2005.

Analysis: The exemption entry uses the disjunctive expression "projection or drawing" and does not confine drawing of circuit patterns to photolithographic exposure, microscopic circuitry or printed circuit boards. Strict construction of an exemption notification requires adherence to its text and does not permit addition of unstated technological conditions. The stringer, lay-up, bussing and laminator machinery function sequentially to arrange photovoltaic semiconductor cells in a predetermined configuration, establish conductive paths through ribbons and soldered joints, and preserve the resulting electrical network. This integrated operation physically establishes the circuit pattern of the photovoltaic module on sensitised semiconductor devices.

Conclusion: In favour of the assessee: the machinery qualified for the exemption, and the differential duty demand and consequential interest were set aside.

Issue (ii): Whether Solar PV Backsheets having a PVF layer qualified as multilayered sheets with tedlar base under Sl. No. 18 of Notification No. 25/1999-Customs dated 28.02.1999.

Analysis: The notification prescribed no condition that tedlar-base material be manufactured by, sourced from, or authorised by a particular trademark proprietor. Its own legislative setting used "Polyvinyl fluoride (TEDLAR)" and "Tedlar" in relation to inputs for solar cells and modules. Trade parlance and technical material established that tedlar is used in the photovoltaic industry as a description associated with PVF material. A manufacturer-specific restriction could not be read into an entry where the imported backsheets were multilayered, contained the requisite PVF layer, and were used for solar modules.

Conclusion: In favour of the assessee: the Solar PV Backsheets qualified for the exemption, and the differential duty demand and consequential interest were set aside.

Issue (iii): Whether confiscation, redemption fine and penalty could be sustained for the imported goods.

Analysis: No concealment, suppression of identity, fictitious documentation or import of goods different from those declared was established. Acceptance of a higher IGST rate for disclosed goods did not by itself constitute misdeclaration attracting confiscation. The exemption findings also removed the foundation for confiscation of the machinery and backsheets. Further, all goods had been finally assessed and cleared for home consumption before the show-cause notice, were neither seized nor released against a bond, and were unavailable for confiscation. With confiscation unsustainable, the consequential redemption fine and penalty lacked a statutory basis.

Conclusion: In favour of the assessee: confiscation, redemption fine and the composite penalty were set aside.

Final Conclusion: The exemption denials and the confiscatory and penal consequences founded on those denials were unsustainable under the applicable notification language and statutory requirements.

Ratio Decidendi: An exemption entry must be applied according to its text and relevant technical or trade usage; conditions such as a prescribed manufacturing technology or manufacturer-specific authorisation cannot be introduced where the notification does not impose them.

Issues: Classification of kitchen exhaust hoods exceeding 120 cm in horizontal side and incorporating an integral fan under Heading 8414.

Analysis: Heading 8414 separately recognises fans and ventilating or recycling hoods incorporating a fan. The tariff entry for hoods under Tariff Item 8414 60 00 is confined to hoods having a maximum horizontal side not exceeding 120 cm. The Explanatory Notes also treat ventilating or recycling hoods incorporating a fan as a distinct category from fans. The integrated fan was only one component of a larger assembly comprising casing, dampers, filters, grease-collection equipment, lighting and related fittings; the assembly consequently retained the essential character of a kitchen hood rather than a fan. Since the hoods exceeded 120 cm and no specific tariff entry applied, classification lay under the residual entry.

Conclusion: Kitchen exhaust hoods incorporating an integral fan and exceeding 120 cm in horizontal side are classifiable under Tariff Item 8414 80 90 of the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, 1975, and not under Tariff Item 8414 59 90.

Issues: (i) Whether the complaint for cheating disclosed a prima facie case warranting refusal to quash the proceedings under the inherent jurisdiction; (ii) Whether non-compliance with the mandatory inquiry requirement before issuing process against accused residing outside the Magistrate's territorial jurisdiction required quashing or remittal; (iii) Whether the complaint lacked specific allegations against the director petitioners so as to preclude their prosecution.

Issue (i): Whether the complaint for cheating disclosed a prima facie case warranting refusal to quash the proceedings under the inherent jurisdiction.

Analysis: Inherent jurisdiction is to be exercised sparingly and only in exceptional cases. Material arising from the related cheque-dishonour proceedings, including the forensic opinion indicating alteration of the cheque date, furnished prima facie support for the allegation that the cheque had been forged and used to institute proceedings. The non-disclosure of these subsequent developments by the petitioners, coupled with the evidentiary dispute requiring trial, prevented a finding that continuation of the cheating complaint was an abuse of process.

Conclusion: The cheating complaint was not liable to be quashed at the threshold.

Issue (ii): Whether non-compliance with the mandatory inquiry requirement before issuing process against accused residing outside the Magistrate's territorial jurisdiction required quashing or remittal.

Analysis: An inquiry or investigation before process is mandatory where the accused reside beyond the Magistrate's territorial jurisdiction. Although that inquiry was not conducted, the complaint could not be treated as disclosing no offence in view of the prima facie material concerning alleged forgery and cheating. The procedural defect therefore required fresh consideration at the pre-process stage rather than termination of the complaint.

Conclusion: The summoning order was set aside and the matter was remitted for compliance with the mandatory inquiry requirement.

Issue (iii): Whether the complaint lacked specific allegations against the director petitioners so as to preclude their prosecution.

Analysis: Criminal liability of company officers cannot rest solely on vicarious liability unless the governing statute so provides; active involvement and criminal intent must be prima facie alleged. The complaint alleged a conspiracy by the accused persons, and the forensic material prima facie supported the accusation of alteration of the cheque and its use in proceedings. The allegations were therefore not wholly devoid of a case against the director petitioners.

Conclusion: There was no basis to exclude the director petitioners from the complaint at the threshold.

Final Conclusion: The complaint remains open for fresh pre-process scrutiny under the mandatory statutory procedure; the available prima facie material does not justify its termination.

Ratio Decidendi: Failure to conduct a mandatory pre-process inquiry for out-of-jurisdiction accused requires remittal rather than quashing where the complaint and attendant material disclose a prima facie criminal case requiring further inquiry.

Issues: Whether the directions for a forensic audit extended to a general examination of the affairs of 17 banks.

Analysis: The audit directions were construed as principally concerning commercial transactions and relationships involving the judgment debtors, FHL, FHHPL and the banks. The relevant clauses did not authorise an unrestricted inquiry into the banks' affairs beyond those transactions.

Conclusion: The forensic audit is confined to transactions involving the judgment debtors, FHL, FHHPL and the banks, and does not permit a fishing and roving enquiry into the banks' entire affairs.

Issues: (i) Whether the Special Court's order directing restoration of attached properties to the insolvency professional on an association's application was legally sustainable; (ii) Whether a monitoring committee should be constituted to verify genuine homebuyers and maintain information concerning attached assets, and whether the insolvency professional could participate in that process; and (iii) Whether immediate liquidation or restoration of the attached assets should be directed.

Issue (i): Whether the Special Court's order directing restoration of attached properties to the insolvency professional on an association's application was legally sustainable.

Analysis: Section 8(8) of the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002 permits restoration only to a claimant having a legitimate interest and a quantifiable loss. Rule 2(b) and Rule 3A of the Prevention of Money-laundering (Restoration of Property) Rules, 2016 require a qualifying claimant, framing of charge before restoration during trial, and an opportunity of hearing to the owner. The association was not itself a homebuyer, had not suffered a quantifiable loss, and could not satisfy the statutory requirements of a claimant.

Analysis: The attached assets belonged to former promoters and other persons or entities, and not to the corporate debtor undergoing insolvency proceedings. An insolvency-regulator circular and the insolvency professional's undertaking could not displace the statutory scheme under the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002 or confer a role upon the insolvency professional in relation to non-corporate-debtor assets. The undertaking recorded in proceedings concerning an individual homebuyer was not an undertaking in rem for all homebuyers.

Conclusion: The Special Court's restoration order was set aside. The related interim orders founded upon that order were recalled and vacated.

Issue (ii): Whether a monitoring committee should be constituted to verify genuine homebuyers and maintain information concerning attached assets, and whether the insolvency professional could participate in that process.

Analysis: The number of affected purchasers, competing claims over attached assets, and the need for an expeditious and transparent verification process warranted an independent supervisory mechanism. The insolvency and money-laundering regimes concern distinct asset pools. The committee's work cannot interfere with the ongoing corporate insolvency resolution process, and the insolvency professional has no role before it because the attached assets are not assets of the corporate debtor.

Conclusion: A monitoring committee was constituted to verify genuine homebuyers irrespective of whether payment was made to either developer, and to maintain updated particulars, attachment status, pending challenges, and valuations of attached assets. The insolvency professional was excluded from the committee's process.

Issue (iii): Whether immediate liquidation or restoration of the attached assets should be directed.

Analysis: Restoration of attached property during trial remains governed by section 8(8) of the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002 and Rule 3A of the Prevention of Money-laundering (Restoration of Property) Rules, 2016. Challenges to individual attachments and appellate remedies remained pending; the statutory scheme recognises a deemed embargo on restoration while such remedies are unresolved. Detailed directions on restitution were deferred until a comprehensive record regarding claimants and asset status becomes available.

Conclusion: No immediate liquidation or restoration of the attached properties was directed; further directions were reserved for a subsequent stage.

Final Conclusion: The statutory process for dealing with attached property is preserved, while an independent verification and asset-information mechanism is established to facilitate future consideration of relief for genuine homebuyers without affecting rights in the ongoing insolvency proceedings.

Ratio Decidendi: Restoration of attached property under the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002 must conform to the statutory requirements for a qualifying claimant and the conditions prescribed for restoration during trial; an insolvency undertaking cannot substitute those requirements or extend to assets that do not belong to the corporate debtor.

Issues: (i) Whether a 100% penalty under Section 129 could be imposed solely because Part-B of the e-way bill was not populated before movement, despite genuine invoices, Part-A particulars and no proof of intent to evade tax; and (ii) Whether failure to issue a final speaking order in Form GST MOV-09 under Section 129(3) vitiated the penalty demand.

Issue (i): Whether a 100% penalty under Section 129 could be imposed solely because Part-B of the e-way bill was not populated before movement, despite genuine invoices, Part-A particulars and no proof of intent to evade tax.

Analysis: Section 129 was construed as penal in character and not as imposing mechanical liability for every documentation lapse. A technical omission in Part-B cannot by itself establish an intention to evade tax. The genuine invoices, valid Part-A particulars, identifiable destination, tax-paid transaction and absence of evidence of diversion or evasion demonstrated that the lapse was inadvertent. Legacy check-post decisions applying absolute statutory regimes were distinguished from the GST framework, in which penalties require examination of the surrounding facts and deliberate tax evasion.

Conclusion: The 100% penalty under Section 129 was unsustainable in the absence of proven intent to evade tax and was decided in favour of the assessee.

Issue (ii): Whether failure to issue a final speaking order in Form GST MOV-09 under Section 129(3) vitiated the penalty demand.

Analysis: Section 129(3) requires a final speaking adjudication quantifying tax and penalty after considering objections and affording an opportunity of hearing. Non-issuance of Form GST MOV-09 bypassed this mandatory adjudicatory safeguard and prejudiced the assessee's statutory rights.

Conclusion: Failure to issue the mandatory final order in Form GST MOV-09 vitiated the penalty demand and was decided in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: A penalty for an unfilled Part-B of the e-way bill cannot be sustained where intentional tax evasion is unproved and the mandatory statutory adjudication procedure has not been followed.

Ratio Decidendi: Penalty under Section 129 requires proof of an intention to evade tax; a bona fide technical documentation lapse, unsupported by such proof, cannot attract penal consequences.

Issues: Whether non-updation of Part-B of an e-way bill, despite genuine transaction documents and absence of evidence of intended tax evasion, can independently justify penalty under Section 129(3).

Analysis: Section 129(3) was applied in the context of the digital GST framework as a measure directed against intentional tax evasion, not an inadvertent clerical or portal-related documentation lapse. Precedents arising from manual check-post regimes were distinguished. Where the tax invoice, Part-A e-way bill, goods particulars and underlying transaction were genuine and accounted for, an unupdated Part-B did not establish an attempt to evade tax. The burden lay on the Revenue to record and support a positive finding of such intent before imposing the penal consequence.

Conclusion: In the absence of a positive finding or evidence of intent to evade tax, non-updating of Part-B alone cannot attract penalty under Section 129(3); the penalty order and its appellate confirmation were legally unsustainable.

Issues: Whether penalty under Section 129 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 was justified where the e-way bill had expired owing to an erroneous entry of the consignor's pin code.

Analysis: Section 129 is a machinery provision intended to prevent tax evasion; mens rea must therefore be established before imposing penalty for a breach during transit. The binding departmental instructions distinguish substantive violations from minor or procedural lapses. The consignment was accompanied by an e-way bill and delivery challan, physical verification matched the goods with the documents, and the incorrect pin code reduced the e-way bill validity by recording a shorter distance. No intention to evade tax was alleged or established.

Conclusion: Invocation of Section 129 and the consequential penalty were invalid and unjustified; the issue is decided in favour of the assessee.

Issues: Whether reassessment is valid where the assessee's objections to reopening are addressed only in the reassessment order, without first being decided by a separate speaking order.

Analysis: Upon issuance of a notice for reassessment, the assessee is entitled to receive the recorded reasons and file objections. Those objections must be disposed of by a separate speaking order before the Assessing Officer proceeds with reassessment. Addressing the objections for the first time within the reassessment order does not satisfy this mandatory jurisdictional requirement. No separate order disposing of the objections had been passed in either assessment year. The defect was jurisdictional and could not be cured by remanding the matter for fresh disposal of objections after completion of the reassessment.

Conclusion: The reassessment proceedings for both assessment years were without jurisdiction and the corresponding assessment, appellate, and Tribunal orders were set aside. The issue was decided in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: Failure to dispose of objections to reopening by a separate speaking order before reassessment is completed vitiates the assumption of reassessment jurisdiction.

Issues: (i) Eligibility of consignments for assessment under Heading 98.01 where the project contract was registered after the purchase orders but before importation; (ii) Availability of post-clearance revision of the Bills of Entry under Section 18A notwithstanding Section 149.

Issue (i): Eligibility of consignments for assessment under Heading 98.01 where the project contract was registered after the purchase orders but before importation.

Analysis: Regulations 4 and 5 of the Project Import Regulations, 1986 require registration of the relevant contract in relation to importation and before clearance for home consumption. A purchase order is only a commercial arrangement and does not amount to importation. The date of importation, understood as bringing goods into India, is determinative for Project Import Assessment. The contract was registered before the importation of the two consignments covered by Bills of Entry dated 13.08.2025, whereas the other three consignments had been imported before registration.

Conclusion: The two consignments imported after registration are eligible to seek assessment under Heading 98.01, subject to the remaining prescribed requirements; the three consignments imported before registration are not eligible. The conclusion is in favour of the assessee only in respect of the former consignments.

Issue (ii): Availability of post-clearance revision of the Bills of Entry under Section 18A notwithstanding Section 149.

Analysis: Section 149 contains a general restriction on amendment of a Bill of Entry after clearance for home consumption. Section 18A, introduced with a Non Obstante Clause, specifically permits an importer to revise an entry after clearance in the prescribed manner and subject to statutory conditions. The specific post-clearance revision mechanism therefore prevails over the general restriction in Section 149.

Conclusion: The Bills of Entry dated 13.08.2025 may be considered for post-clearance revision under Section 18A, subject to fulfilment of the applicable statutory and prescribed requirements. This conclusion is in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The project-import benefit and the statutory route for post-clearance revision are available only for the consignments imported after registration of the project contract; no such entitlement arises for the consignments imported earlier.

Ratio Decidendi: For project-import assessment, eligibility is governed by the date of actual importation after contract registration rather than the date of an antecedent purchase order, and the specific power of post-clearance revision overrides the general bar on amendment.

Issues: Whether the continued operation of Look Out Circulars against petitioners cooperating in a pending money-laundering investigation was justified.

Analysis: A Look Out Circular is a coercive restraint on the right to travel and cannot be continued routinely merely because an investigation remains pending. Its issuance and continuance require material indicating a genuine risk of evasion, non-compliance, abscondence, or obstruction of the investigation. The petitioners had complied with summonses, furnished information, remained available to the investigating agency, and had undertaken foreign travel without hindering the investigation. No travel restriction had been imposed by the trial court, and no material established that either petitioner posed a flight risk.

Conclusion: The continued Look Out Circulars were unwarranted and were quashed, subject to safeguards requiring travel-intimation, provision of contact details, and continued cooperation with the investigation.

Issues: (i) Whether royalty payments for use of technology, aggregated with manufacturing activity under TNMM, could be separately benchmarked and recharacterised as a cost contribution arrangement; (ii) Whether XS CAD India Pvt. Ltd. was a valid comparable for benchmarking engineering and design services; (iii) Whether the disallowance of expenditure relating to exempt income was properly made under Section 14A read with Rule 8D.

Issue (i): Whether royalty payments for use of technology, aggregated with manufacturing activity under TNMM, could be separately benchmarked and recharacterised as a cost contribution arrangement.

Analysis: Under the arm's-length framework, TNMM had been accepted as the most appropriate method for the manufacturing segment, including the royalty transaction. On identical facts, the royalty payment was inextricably linked with manufacturing activity and had consistently been benchmarked on an aggregated basis. Selectively applying another method to royalty after accepting TNMM for the segment would distort the arm's-length determination, particularly where no material change in facts was shown.

Conclusion: The royalty transaction must be accepted as benchmarked under the aggregated TNMM approach, and the transfer-pricing adjustment is deleted in favour of the assessee.

Issue (ii): Whether XS CAD India Pvt. Ltd. was a valid comparable for benchmarking engineering and design services.

Analysis: Comparable-company analysis requires functional similarity and reliable segmental information. XS CAD India Pvt. Ltd. earned revenue from varied streams, including CAD services, training and coaching, manpower recruitment, and website design and development, without reliable segmental data. Its business model was functionally dissimilar and was also affected by an extraordinary acquisition event.

Conclusion: XS CAD India Pvt. Ltd. must be excluded from the comparable set, and the engineering and design services margin must be recomputed; the related adjustment must be deleted if the assessee's margin exceeds the recomputed mean, in favour of the assessee.

Issue (iii): Whether the disallowance of expenditure relating to exempt income was properly made under Section 14A read with Rule 8D.

Analysis: Section 14A read with amended Rule 8D permits disallowance after the Assessing Officer records dissatisfaction with the correctness of the assessee's claim. The Assessing Officer had found that the suo motu disallowance did not account for expenditure attributable to personnel involved in investment activities. The identical issue for an earlier year had been decided on the same basis, and the pre-amendment approach was inapplicable.

Conclusion: The disallowance under Section 14A read with Rule 8D is sustained against the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The royalty adjustment is removed, the engineering and design services transaction requires fresh benchmarking after exclusion of the unsuitable comparable, and the disallowance relating to exempt income remains sustained.

Ratio Decidendi: Once TNMM is accepted as the most appropriate method for aggregated manufacturing transactions including royalty, the royalty component cannot selectively be subjected to a different transfer-pricing method in the absence of a material change in facts.

Issues: (i) Whether the authorised signatories, as power-of-attorney holders exercising effective control, could be made liable after the sole proprietor's death for obligations arising from lifetime imports; (ii) Whether the declared transaction value could lawfully be rejected and the assessable value enhanced by reference to NIDB data; (iii) Whether the valuation finding concerning the live consignments could support reassessment of the 14 earlier consignments; (iv) Whether the live and earlier consignments were liable to confiscation; (v) Whether the penalties imposed under the Customs Act, 1962 were sustainable.

Issue (i): Whether the authorised signatories, as power-of-attorney holders exercising effective control, could be made liable after the sole proprietor's death for obligations arising from lifetime imports.

Analysis: Sections 2(26) and 2(3A) of the Customs Act, 1962 extend the concept of importer to a beneficial owner or a person exercising effective control over imported goods. Documentary material establishing the authorised signatories as power-of-attorney holders, corroborated by the recorded statements, showed that they exercised such control over the proprietary concern and its imports.

Conclusion: The authorised signatories were liable for duty, interest, penalty and fine in respect of imports effected during the sole proprietor's lifetime; against the assessee.

Issue (ii): Whether the declared transaction value could lawfully be rejected and the assessable value enhanced by reference to NIDB data.

Analysis: Section 14 of the Customs Act, 1962 adopts the price actually paid or payable as the transaction value, subject to the valuation rules. Rule 12 of the Customs Valuation (Determination of Value of Imported Goods) Rules, 2007 requires a sustainable basis to doubt the declared value. NIDB data, without reliable evidence that it concerned comparable goods or that the declared invoice price was inaccurate, did not justify rejection. The admitted underdeclaration of quantity nevertheless required duty on the undeclared 31,000 and 21,000 watch movements at the declared unit value of Rs. 9.89.

Conclusion: The declared transaction value could not be rejected or enhanced on the available NIDB data; duty remained payable only on the admitted undeclared quantities at the declared value; partly in favour of the assessee.

Issue (iii): Whether the valuation finding concerning the live consignments could support reassessment of the 14 earlier consignments.

Analysis: In the absence of evidence establishing undervaluation in the live consignments, their declared unit value could not furnish a basis to enhance the value of earlier consignments. The earlier goods had also been cleared before the reassessment exercise.

Conclusion: The enhanced valuation and corresponding differential-duty demand for the 14 earlier consignments were set aside; in favour of the assessee.

Issue (iv): Whether the live and earlier consignments were liable to confiscation.

Analysis: The confiscation directions rested upon the unsustainable enhancement of value. As the valuation findings failed and the earlier consignments had already been cleared, the foundation for confiscation did not survive.

Conclusion: The confiscation orders for the live and earlier consignments were set aside; in favour of the assessee.

Issue (v): Whether the penalties imposed under the Customs Act, 1962 were sustainable.

Analysis: The substantial admitted discrepancy between the declared and actual quantities excluded a bona fide explanation for the declaration and supported the retained penalty for false declaration. The operative directions preserved the penalty under Section 114AA of the Customs Act, 1962.

Conclusion: The penalty under Section 114AA of the Customs Act, 1962 was upheld, while the remaining penalty directions were set aside; partly against the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The reassessment-based fiscal consequences founded on enhanced values and the confiscation directions failed, while liability survived for duty on the unreported quantities at the declared unit price and for the retained penalty for false declaration.

Ratio Decidendi: Transaction value cannot be rejected merely on NIDB data unless cogent evidence establishes that the declared price is inaccurate or that the relied-upon data concerns comparable goods.

Issues: Whether DHA algae oil comprising DHA and other saturated and unsaturated fatty acids was classifiable under CTH 15159090 rather than CTH 29161590 or CTH 2106, and was consequently eligible for exemption under Notification No. 50/2017-CUS dated 30.06.2017.

Analysis: Classification is governed primarily by the terms of the tariff headings and relevant Chapter Notes under Rule 1 of the General Rules for Interpretation, with the Harmonized System of Nomenclature and its explanatory notes providing authoritative guidance. Chapter 15 covers vegetable oils, whereas Chapter 29 applies to separate chemically defined organic compounds. Fatty acids of the stipulated purity alone may fall under CTH 2916; an oil containing a mixture of fatty acids does not become a separate chemically defined fatty acid merely because DHA is one of its constituents.

Analysis: The test reports showed that the imported product contained approximately 55% DHA along with palmitic acid and other saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. Its character remained that of edible algae oil derived from plant sources, not pure DHA or another chemically defined fatty acid. End use in the food industry was immaterial to classification. CTH 1515 was the specific applicable entry for the product, while CTH 2916 and CTH 2106 did not describe oils of this nature.

Conclusion: DHA algae oil is classifiable under CTH 15159090 and not under CTH 29161590 or CTH 2106. The claimed exemption under Notification No. 50/2017-CUS dated 30.06.2017 was unavailable, and the consequential differential duty, interest, confiscation-related redemption fine, penalties, and bank-guarantee appropriation were sustained.

Issues: Whether a duplicate amount deposited as mandatory appellate pre-deposit is refundable with interest, and whether the refund procedure under Section 11B of the Central Excise Act, 1944 applies to such deposit.

Analysis: Section 11B concerns refund claims for excise duty and interest paid on that duty. A statutory pre-deposit made for exercising the right of appeal under Section 35F is not payment of duty. Therefore, retention of the duplicate pre-deposit could not be justified by requiring recourse to the procedure under Section 11B. The admitted duplicate credit and the absence of a bona fide basis for withholding it warranted refund with interest and costs.

Conclusion: The duplicate pre-deposit of Rs.1,24,175/- is refundable to the petitioner with interest at 12% per annum from the date of the second receipt until payment, along with litigation costs of Rs.25,000/-.

Issues: Whether the applicant was entitled to bail pending trial for alleged offences under Section 132 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.

Analysis: Pre-conviction detention is not punitive, and the presumption of innocence, personal liberty, and the right to a speedy trial require assessment of whether custody is necessary to secure attendance at trial. The alleged offences carry a maximum sentence of five years and are triable by a Magistrate. Investigation was complete, the complaint had been filed, and the evidence was documentary. The applicant had remained in custody since 17.04.2026, had no criminal antecedents, and no material established a risk of absconding, witness intimidation, evidence tampering, repetition of offences, or subversion of justice. No exceptional circumstance justified continued detention when the trial was unlikely to conclude within a reasonable period.

Conclusion: The applicant made out a case for bail and was ordered to be released on bail subject to conditions.