Issues: Whether penalty under section 270A of the Income-tax Act, 1961 was leviable for alleged under-reporting or misreporting of income when the assessee had withdrawn the disputed deduction in the return filed in response to notice under section 148 and the assessment was completed without any addition on that count.

Analysis: The assessee had originally claimed deduction under section 80GGC, but in the return filed pursuant to notice under section 148, the claim was withdrawn and the corresponding income was offered. The assessment order accepted the returned income and no addition or variation was made in respect of the disputed amount. In these circumstances, the alleged concealment could not be treated as under-reporting or misreporting so as to attract penalty under section 270A. The penalty, therefore, had no surviving basis.

Conclusion: The penalty under section 270A was not sustainable and the assessee succeeded.

Issues: (i) Whether penalty under section 271D of the Income-tax Act, 1961 was sustainable where cash formed part of the consideration of a genuine and fully disclosed sale transaction; (ii) Whether the penalty proceedings were vitiated by the mismatch between the notice referring to section 271DA read with section 269ST and the penalty ultimately imposed under section 271D for alleged contravention of section 269SS.

Issue (i): Whether penalty under section 271D of the Income-tax Act, 1961 was sustainable where cash formed part of the consideration of a genuine and fully disclosed sale transaction.

Analysis: The transaction was a completed registered sale of property, the consideration was partly received through banking channels and partly in cash, and the entire receipt was disclosed in the return of income. The record did not show that the sale was sham or that any unaccounted money was introduced. The circumstances indicated a bona fide transaction with practical difficulty in payment, and the assessee had offered the relevant income to tax.

Conclusion: Penalty under section 271D was not sustainable on merits and the issue was decided in favour of the assessee.

Issue (ii): Whether the penalty proceedings were vitiated by the mismatch between the notice referring to section 271DA read with section 269ST and the penalty ultimately imposed under section 271D for alleged contravention of section 269SS.

Analysis: The notice did not correspond to the statutory provision on which the penalty was ultimately founded. The discrepancy showed that the notice itself was not in conformity with the Income-tax Act, 1961, and the defect went to the root of the penalty proceedings.

Conclusion: The penalty proceedings were vitiated by the defective notice and this issue also was decided in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The penalty was unsustainable both on merits and for want of a valid statutory notice, resulting in deletion of the penalty demand.

Ratio Decidendi: Penalty for acceptance of cash in violation of section 269SS of the Income-tax Act, 1961 cannot be sustained where the underlying transaction is genuine, fully disclosed, and supported by reasonable cause under section 273B, and proceedings founded on an incorrect statutory notice are invalid.

Issues: (i) Whether the additional legal ground challenging the reassessment could be admitted for the first time before the Tribunal; (ii) Whether reassessment under section 147 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 was valid when the assessment ultimately made an addition on a ground not forming part of the recorded reasons for reopening.

Issue (i): Whether the additional legal ground challenging the reassessment could be admitted for the first time before the Tribunal.

Analysis: The ground was purely legal in nature and all relevant facts were already on record. No further enquiry into facts was required for deciding the challenge to jurisdiction. The Tribunal therefore admitted the additional ground.

Conclusion: The additional ground was admitted.

Issue (ii): Whether reassessment under section 147 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 was valid when the assessment ultimately made an addition on a ground not forming part of the recorded reasons for reopening.

Analysis: The recorded reasons referred to alleged escapement arising from time deposit investment and interest income. The assessment order, however, made an addition on account of long-term capital gain from sale of agricultural land, which was a different issue. Since no addition was made on the basis of the very reasons recorded for reopening, the reassessment travelled beyond its jurisdiction. Fresh reasons were not recorded and no further authority was taken to sustain a different basis of addition.

Conclusion: The reassessment was held to be void ab initio and the addition on long-term capital gain could not survive.

Final Conclusion: The reassessment was quashed, and the remaining additions were treated as academic and infructuous, resulting in relief to the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: An assessment reopened on specified reasons cannot be sustained by making an addition on an altogether different ground that did not form part of the recorded reasons, unless fresh reasons are recorded and the reassessment is lawfully expanded in accordance with section 147 of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

Issues: Whether Notification No. 02/2026-27, which changed the import policy for goods under CTH 7113 from "Free" to "Restricted", could be applied to consignments that had already been dispatched and had arrived in India before the notification was published in the e-Official Gazette.

Analysis: The effective date of delegated legislation depends on its publication in the manner prescribed by law, and where publication is through an e-Gazette, the precise date and time of publication are material. A subordinate legislative measure cannot operate retrospectively unless the parent statute authorises such operation. The notification itself stated that the amended policy would come into force with immediate effect, but the goods in question had already been shipped and had reached the Indian ports before the notification was digitally published. The Court accepted the view that the notification could not be applied to consignments that had landed before its publication, and the objection based on absence of a prayer challenging the notification's validity did not survive because the case was decided on non-applicability of the notification to the petitioner's goods.

Conclusion: The notification did not apply to the petitioner's consignments, and the goods were liable to be cleared under the pre-existing free import policy.

Issues: Whether the appellant was involved in the fraudulent export of ketamine under the guise of Alpha Olefin Sulphonate, and whether the penalty and redemption fine imposed under the Customs Act were sustainable.

Analysis: The evidence, including witness statements, documentary material, bank records, and the appellant's own admissions, established that the export was part of a deliberate scheme of misdeclaration and fraudulent use of fictitious documents and bank accounts. The retracted denial was not accepted in the face of corroborated circumstantial evidence. The export-related declarations were found to be false, and the appellant's role went far beyond that of a mere commission agent, establishing knowing participation in the illegal export operation. However, the redemption fine could not be sustained because the goods were not available for confiscation.

Conclusion: The appellant was held liable for penalty, but the redemption fine was set aside. The penalty was reduced to Rs. 5 lakh, and the appeal was disposed of by modifying the impugned order to that extent.

Ratio Decidendi: In cases of smuggling and misdeclaration, liability may be established on the basis of corroborated circumstantial evidence and admissions, even where direct seizure in India is absent, but redemption fine cannot be sustained when the confiscable goods are not available.

Issues: (i) Whether a penalty under section 271AAB could be sustained on the balance cash addition; (ii) Whether penalty proceedings under section 271AAB were valid where the show-cause notice did not specify the applicable statutory clause or charge.

Issue (i): Whether a penalty under section 271AAB could be sustained on the balance cash addition.

Analysis: The residual cash addition arose from judicial estimation and not from seized material establishing undisclosed income or from an admission. The cash was attributed to the agricultural income of the assessee's father and household savings of female family members. The amount therefore did not satisfy the statutory character of undisclosed income for search-penalty purposes.

Conclusion: The penalty lacked legal foundation because the balance addition was not undisclosed income; in favour of the assessee.

Issue (ii): Whether penalty proceedings under section 271AAB were valid where the show-cause notice did not specify the applicable statutory clause or charge.

Analysis: The show-cause notices and penalty order did not identify the limb or clause of section 271AAB under which penalty was initiated and imposed. This omission failed to inform the assessee of the precise charge and infringed principles of natural justice.

Conclusion: Initiation and imposition of penalty without specification of the applicable charge under section 271AAB was invalid; in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: Search-penalty liability requires both an amount qualifying as undisclosed income and proceedings initiated through clear disclosure of the precise statutory charge.

Ratio Decidendi: A notice under section 271AAB that does not identify the applicable statutory clause fails to communicate the precise charge and cannot sustain a penalty.

Issues: Whether alleged sale proceeds of a Dubai property could be assessed as unexplained money under Section 69A of the Income-tax Act, 1961 solely on the basis of WhatsApp chats.

Analysis: Section 69A requires material establishing that the assessee was the owner or recipient of unrecorded money and that the source remained unexplained. The property stood legally owned by a third-party entity, while no cash, foreign currency, banking trail, third-party confirmation, or other material established a live or proximate nexus between the assessee and the alleged sale consideration. The WhatsApp chats, without independent corroboration, were uncorroborated electronic records or dumb documents and could not alone support an inference of receipt of unexplained money. The proposed addition consequently rested on conjecture and suspicion.

Conclusion: The addition under Section 69A, and consequential taxation under Section 115BBE, was unsustainable; deletion of the addition was sustained in favour of the assessee.

Issues: Whether penalty at 200% for under-reported income treated as misreporting could be sustained where the disallowance of deduction under Section 80GGC was not brought within any specified instance of misreporting.

Analysis: The higher penalty under Section 270A(8) applies only where under-reported income results from misreporting falling within one of the exhaustive instances in Section 270A(9). The assessment order did not identify or establish how the disallowance of the deduction claim fell within any of those instances. Penal provisions require strict interpretation.

Conclusion: The 200% penalty for misreporting was unsustainable and was deleted, in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: A higher penalty for misreporting of income can be imposed only upon establishing that the case falls within a specified category of misreporting under Section 270A(9).

Issues: (i) Whether the residual disallowance of consultancy charges for non-deduction of tax at source was sustainable; (ii) Whether disallowance of expenses allegedly not pertaining to the relevant year or not invoiced in the assessee's name was sustainable; (iii) Whether disallowance of interest for failure to deduct tax at source was sustainable; (iv) Whether sundry balances written off were allowable; (v) Whether customer advances constituted unexplained cash credits; (vi) Whether disallowance under section 14A read with rule 8D could be made without exempt income; (vii) Whether deletion of prior-period expenditure and electricity expenses was justified.

Issue (i): Whether the residual disallowance of consultancy charges for non-deduction of tax at source was sustainable.

Analysis: The service-tax explanation and supporting material did not establish that the residual amount was outside the tax-deduction obligation. The deletion granted for substantiated service-tax components was also supported by the record.

Conclusion: The residual consultancy-charge disallowance was sustained against the assessee, and the Revenue's challenge to the relief granted was rejected.

Issue (ii): Whether disallowance of expenses allegedly not pertaining to the relevant year or not invoiced in the assessee's name was sustainable.

Analysis: The expenses were found to have crystallised during the relevant year, and their treatment as prior-period expenditure was revenue neutral. On invoices issued in the name of an affiliated entity, the prior order on materially identical facts was followed for judicial consistency.

Conclusion: The remaining disallowance was deleted in favour of the assessee, and the Revenue's challenge concerning invoices not in the assessee's name was rejected.

Issue (iii): Whether disallowance of interest for failure to deduct tax at source was sustainable.

Analysis: No compliance evidence was shown in respect of one payee. For the other payee, its return evidencing inclusion of the income required factual verification under the statutory provisos.

Conclusion: The disallowance relating to one payee was sustained against the assessee; the claim relating to the other payee was remitted for verification.

Issue (iv): Whether sundry balances written off were allowable.

Analysis: Although the claim was not allowable as bad debts because the amounts had not been recognised as taxable income, the write-offs qualified alternatively as business expenditure or business loss. The record did not disclose any failure to furnish relevant evidence.

Conclusion: The entire write-off claim was allowed in favour of the assessee, subject to consequential computation.

Issue (v): Whether customer advances constituted unexplained cash credits.

Analysis: The advances arose from regular business customers, and the assessee had furnished material establishing their identity, genuineness and creditworthiness.

Conclusion: The deletion of the unexplained-cash-credit addition was upheld in favour of the assessee.

Issue (vi): Whether disallowance under section 14A read with rule 8D could be made without exempt income.

Analysis: The assessee had not earned exempt income in the relevant previous year; accordingly, the statutory disallowance was inapplicable.

Conclusion: The deletion of the disallowance was upheld in favour of the assessee.

Issue (vii): Whether deletion of prior-period expenditure and electricity expenses was justified.

Analysis: The prior-period expenditure was revenue neutral. Electricity charges paid to statutory bodies in the course of regular business were wholly and exclusively incurred for business purposes.

Conclusion: The deletions were upheld in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The assessee obtained relief on the expense, write-off and interest-verification issues, while the Revenue's challenges to the principal deletions failed.

Issues: Whether the deletion of the addition for unexplained cash credit in respect of capital introduced by a partner was justified.

Analysis: The Assessing Officer computed the addition by taking the closing balances of the partners' capital accounts without excluding opening capital, profit credited to the partners and remuneration. The documentary record established that the partner made direct transfers to the firm and payments to land vendors on the firm's behalf, which were recorded as capital contribution. The partner's source of funds was corroborated by the registered sale deed and by assessment of the sale consideration as capital gains in the partner's own assessment. The identity of the contributor, the source and capacity to contribute, and the genuineness of the remittances stood established. Once the partner owned and confirmed the contribution, any independent issue concerning the partner's source could not justify an addition in the firm's hands on the facts established.

Conclusion: The deletion of the addition under Section 68 was upheld, in favour of the assessee.

Issues: (i) Whether estimated chit subscriptions could be assessed as unexplained investment in the absence of year-specific corroborative material; (ii) Whether estimated interest on borrowings could be assessed as unexplained expenditure without evidence of actual interest payment during the relevant year.

Issue (i): Whether estimated chit subscriptions could be assessed as unexplained investment in the absence of year-specific corroborative material.

Analysis: The addition under Section 69 was derived by averaging an aggregate statement concerning chit dealings over nine years and attributing an annual amount to each assessment year. The impounded material recorded outstanding chit and loan liabilities, rather than a specific investment made in the relevant year. The explanation that chit instalments were funded through bid receipts and borrowings was consistent with the statements and materials on record. No document established any fresh, unrecorded chit investment for the relevant year.

Conclusion: The estimated chit-subscription addition under Section 69 was unsustainable; decided in favour of the assessee.

Issue (ii): Whether estimated interest on borrowings could be assessed as unexplained expenditure without evidence of actual interest payment during the relevant year.

Analysis: The interest addition under Section 69C was computed by allocating an aggregate alleged interest component over six years. There was no year-specific document, receipt, voucher, or other material demonstrating actual interest outgo in the relevant year. The material showed continuing borrowings and liabilities, and the statements indicated that interest was deducted upfront from fresh loan disbursements. The borrowings provided an identifiable source for any such payment.

Conclusion: The estimated interest addition under Section 69C was unsustainable; decided in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: Additions founded solely on broad admissions and mathematical allocation, without evidence identifying an investment or expenditure in the relevant assessment year, cannot be sustained.

Ratio Decidendi: A statement lacking year-specific corroboration cannot alone support additions for unexplained investment or unexplained expenditure where the record does not establish the actual transaction or absence of an explained source in the relevant year.

Issues: Whether a reassessment notice issued after three years from the end of the relevant assessment year was validly sanctioned by the competent specified authority.

Analysis: Under the post-1 April 2021 reassessment regime, the authority competent to grant prior approval is determined by the period elapsed from the end of the relevant assessment year. Where more than three years have elapsed, approval must be obtained from the higher authority prescribed under Section 151. The approval in this case was granted by the Principal Commissioner rather than the prescribed higher authority.

Conclusion: The reassessment notice was invalid for want of sanction by the competent specified authority; the consequential reassessment was therefore quashed, in favour of the assessee.

Issues: Whether transportation and distribution of newspapers, with incidental loading and unloading, constituted taxable Cargo Handling Service or was covered by the Negative List.

Analysis: The agreement's primary object was transportation and distribution of newspapers from the printing press to designated centres. Loading and unloading were incidental to that transportation, which was performed through owned and hired vehicles. The composite activity consequently fell within services by way of transportation of goods by road under the Negative List, and could not be classified as Cargo Handling Service.

Conclusion: The activity was covered by the Negative List under Section 66D(p) of the Finance Act, 1994; the assessee was not liable to service tax.

Issues: Whether integrated tax paid on a transaction initially treated as an inter-State supply, but subsequently treated as an intra-State supply, could be adjusted against the Central and State tax liability, and whether consequential demand of tax, interest and penalty could be sustained.

Analysis: Section 77(2) was read with Rule 92 to require consideration of adjustment of the amount paid under the incorrect tax head against the liability under the correct head. The statutory scheme does not permit interest liability where integrated tax was paid on a transaction subsequently held to be an intra-State supply. The adjudicating authority had raised the demand, including interest and penalty, without considering this conjoint operation or issuing the prescribed adjustment order.

Conclusion: The demand founded on payment of integrated tax under the wrong head could not be sustained without considering adjustment under Section 77(2) and Rule 92; the issue was decided in favour of the assessee.

Issues: Whether an assessee whose total income under the new tax regime does not exceed Rs. 7 lakh may claim rebate under section 87A against tax payable on long-term capital gains.

Analysis: Section 112A(6) permits rebate under section 87A where total income includes long-term capital gains, with the rebate being computed from income tax on total income reduced by tax payable on such gains. The relevant threshold concerns the amount of tax calculated on the long-term capital gains, not the entire amount of long-term capital gains. The lower authority therefore incorrectly sustained denial of the claimed rebate.

Conclusion: Rebate under section 87A was allowable against the tax liability on the long-term capital gains; the issue was decided in favour of the assessee.

Issues: (i) Whether the transfer price of electricity supplied by captive power plants to the assessee's manufacturing units was required to be benchmarked at the rate charged by power-generating companies to State Electricity Boards, or at the rate charged by State Electricity Boards to industrial consumers for computing deduction under section 80-IA; (ii) whether the transfer of steam could be valued at nil for purposes of the deduction under section 80-IA; (iii) whether head-office and common expenses could be allocated to eligible units on a turnover basis; and (iv) whether third-party quotations could be used under the Other Method for benchmarking transfer of treated water by effluent treatment plants.

Issue (i): Whether the assessee's captive power transfer was correctly benchmarked using the rates at which State Electricity Boards supplied electricity to industrial consumers.

Analysis: Section 80-IA permits computation by reference to the market value of goods or services, while sections 80A(6), 92BA and 92F apply the arm's length standard to specified domestic transactions. The Tribunal held that the open-market rate available to the consuming industrial units is the relevant comparable rate. The rate charged by generating companies to State Electricity Boards reflects a different market level and regulated transaction, and is not comparable to the rate at which the manufacturing units could obtain electricity from the grid. The post-amendment transfer-pricing provisions did not displace this principle. The rate charged by State Electricity Boards to industrial consumers therefore represented both market value and arm's length price.

Conclusion: The disallowance of deduction under section 80-IA relating to captive power plants was deleted in favour of the assessee.

Issue (ii): Whether the deduction under section 80-IA relating to generation and transfer of steam could be disallowed by treating the arm's length price of steam as nil.

Analysis: The transfer of steam was considered as part of the assessee's integrated generation process and the issue was governed by the consistent decisions in the assessee's earlier years. The treatment of the arm's length price of steam as nil was not sustained.

Conclusion: The disallowance relating to transfer of steam was deleted in favour of the assessee.

Issue (iii): Whether common head-office expenses could be apportioned to eligible units on a turnover basis while computing the deduction under section 80-IA.

Analysis: Only expenses having a direct and proximate nexus with the eligible undertaking may be attributed for computing its profits. Turnover alone was not an appropriate basis for allocating general head-office and common expenses. Consistent with earlier decisions, the matter was directed to be recomputed by restricting the allocation to specified expenses, including director's fees, auditor's fees and charitable donations, on a reasonable manpower-based basis.

Conclusion: The turnover-based allocation was rejected, but the issue was remitted for limited recomputation of the permissible allocation.

Issue (iv): Whether an authentic third-party quotation could be used under Rule 10AB for determining the arm's length price of treated-water services supplied by effluent treatment plants.

Analysis: Rule 10AB permits use of a method based on the price charged or that would have been charged in the same or a similar uncontrolled transaction under similar circumstances. The quotation from an independent vendor was not found to be unreliable or inauthentic, and the law did not require multiple quotations for applying the Other Method. The rejection of the quotation solely because it was a single quotation was therefore unjustified.

Conclusion: The transfer-pricing adjustment relating to effluent treatment plants was deleted in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The substantive disallowances concerning captive power, steam and effluent treatment plants were removed, while the head-office expense issue was confined to a fresh and limited recomputation on a reasonable basis.

Ratio Decidendi: For computing deduction under section 80-IA, electricity transferred by a captive power plant to industrial consuming units is appropriately valued by reference to the rate charged by State Electricity Boards to industrial consumers where that rate represents the open-market and arm's length value. A genuine third-party quotation may also be used under the Other Method to determine arm's length price where it reflects a comparable uncontrolled transaction.

Issues: Whether a person convicted of an offence under Section 277 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 could be released on probation or under Section 360 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 in the face of Section 292A of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

Analysis: Section 292A creates an express bar against applying Section 360 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 and the Probation of Offenders Act, 1958 to a person convicted of an offence under the Income-tax Act, except where the convicted person is under eighteen years of age. The conviction under Section 277 was not disturbed, and the order releasing the accused on probation was found to be contrary to the statutory mandate.

Conclusion: The grant of probation was set aside, and the matter was remitted for reconsideration on the question of sentence only. The appeal was allowed.

Issues: Whether a public charitable trust, not registered under sections 12AA/12AB and not claiming exemption under sections 11 to 13, is liable to tax at the Maximum Marginal Rate under section 164(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, or at the normal rates applicable to an Association of Persons.

Analysis: The assessee was a public charitable trust whose income could not be distributed among members or trustees and was deployable only towards its charitable objects. Section 164(1) is intended to address discretionary arrangements where income is receivable for beneficiaries with indeterminate or unknown shares, and it cannot be mechanically applied merely because the trust is not entitled to exemption or because no beneficiary share is specified. CBDT Circular No. 320 dated 11.01.1982 clarified that in cases of charitable or religious trusts where members or trustees are not entitled to any share in the income, tax is payable at the rate ordinarily applicable to an Association of Persons and not at the Maximum Marginal Rate. The trust was therefore distinguishable from a private discretionary trust, and the Revenue's reliance on authorities concerning such discretionary trusts was held inapposite.

Conclusion: Section 164(1) was held inapplicable, and the income was directed to be taxed at the normal rates applicable to an Association of Persons, with consequential relief to the assessee.

Issues: (i) Whether reassessment initiated beyond four years, on the basis of Investigation Wing information and without independent enquiry, was valid; (ii) whether the additions treating share sale proceeds as unexplained credits and the related commission as unexplained expenditure were sustainable.

Issue (i): Whether reassessment initiated beyond four years, on the basis of Investigation Wing information and without independent enquiry, was valid.

Analysis: The original assessments had been completed under section 143(3) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 after examination of the relevant facts. The reasons recorded for reopening were founded on general Investigation Wing material relating to penny stock scripts, without specific material linking the assessees to any accommodation entry or showing any independent application of mind. In the cases where reopening was beyond four years, the reasons also failed to identify any specific primary fact that had not been fully and truly disclosed by the assessees. The reopening was thus held to rest on borrowed satisfaction, lacking tangible material and the necessary live link with alleged escapement of income.

Conclusion: The reassessment proceedings were invalid and the consequent reassessment orders were quashed, in favour of the assessees.

Issue (ii): Whether the additions treating share sale proceeds as unexplained credits and the related commission as unexplained expenditure were sustainable.

Analysis: The assessees had furnished contract notes, demat statements, bank records, broker ledgers, STT evidence and other contemporaneous documents to support the share transactions. The Tribunal found that the sale proceeds had already been taken into account in the declared capital gains or losses, and therefore taxing the entire sale consideration again would amount to double addition. It also found that the Revenue had not produced any specific material showing the assessees as beneficiaries of the alleged penny stock scheme, and no defect was established in the documentary evidence. Once the share transactions were accepted as genuine, the consequential commission additions could not survive.

Conclusion: The additions under sections 68 and 69C were deleted, in favour of the assessees.

Final Conclusion: All the connected appeals were allowed, with both the reassessment jurisdiction and the substantive additions set aside.

Ratio Decidendi: Reassessment cannot be sustained on general investigative allegations without independent application of mind, specific material linking the assessee to escapement of income, and compliance with the statutory preconditions where reopening is beyond four years; once genuine share transactions are supported by primary evidence, the same sale proceeds cannot again be brought to tax as unexplained credits and no consequential commission addition can survive.

Outcome: The applications were heard, further filings were permitted in one matter, orders were reserved in two matters, and the connected applications were directed to be listed on 09.06.2026.