Issues: (i) Whether the maintenance, repair and allied services involving consumption of goods were classifiable as Works Contract Service and eligible for abatement; (ii) Whether charges collected for supply of electricity to individual flat owners were liable to service tax.

Issue (i): Whether the maintenance, repair and allied services involving consumption of goods were classifiable as Works Contract Service and eligible for abatement.

Analysis: Section 65B(54) of the Finance Act, 1994 covers a contract involving transfer of property in goods taxable as a sale, where the contract concerns, inter alia, repair or maintenance of a movable or immovable structure. The documentary material established purchase and consumption of goods in the maintenance activities, while invoices and VAT returns showed levy and payment of VAT alongside service tax. The services were therefore composite works contracts; the transfer of goods could not be subjected to service tax as a service component.

Conclusion: The services were Works Contract Service and the denial of abatement, service-tax demand, interest and penalties was unsustainable. This issue is in favour of the assessee.

Issue (ii): Whether charges collected for supply of electricity to individual flat owners were liable to service tax.

Analysis: Electricity supplied to users against payment constitutes goods, and its supply is a sale of goods rather than a service. Such a transaction falls outside the charging scope of service tax and the statutory concept of service. The contrary authority relied upon by Revenue was factually distinguishable, and the Department had also accepted the same legal position in comparable matters involving group units.

Conclusion: Electricity-supply charges were not liable to service tax, and the dropping of the related demand was valid. This issue is in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The service-tax treatment of the maintenance contracts as taxable management, maintenance or repair services was displaced by their character as works contracts, and the electricity receipts remained outside the service-tax net.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a repair or maintenance contract involves taxable transfer of property in goods, it is a composite works contract; separately, supply of electricity for consideration is a sale of goods and not a taxable service.

Issues: Whether a final assessment against a non-resident assessee, passed without first issuing a draft assessment order under Section 144C, is valid.

Analysis: The assessee was a non-resident and the assessment involved a prejudicial variation. The statutory procedure required issuance of a draft assessment order before a final assessment could be made. The Assessing Officer directly passed the final assessment order without following that mandatory procedure. The omission was not a curable procedural irregularity.

Conclusion: The final assessment order was void for non-compliance with the mandatory requirement of Section 144C, in favour of the assessee.

Issues: (i) Whether disallowance of purchases under section 40A(3) was sustainable on the presumption that purchases from an alleged accommodation-entry provider were made in cash; (ii) Whether an outstanding trade payable arising from purchases could be assessed as unexplained cash credit under section 68.

Issue (i): Whether disallowance of purchases under section 40A(3) was sustainable on the presumption that purchases from an alleged accommodation-entry provider were made in cash.

Analysis: The purchase and sales registers, quantitative details, books of account and corresponding export sales were accepted, and the books were not rejected under section 145(3). The material established that the goods had been purchased and exported, though the identity of the recorded supplier was disputed. Section 40A(3) requires evidence of actual cash payment exceeding the prescribed limit to an identifiable person. No such payment during the relevant year was established; rather, the purchases remained outstanding at year-end and a subsequent payment was made through banking channels. The proposed cash purchases were based solely on presumption.

Conclusion: The disallowance under section 40A(3) was deleted in favour of the assessee.

Issue (ii): Whether an outstanding trade payable arising from purchases could be assessed as unexplained cash credit under section 68.

Analysis: The outstanding balance represented the accounting credit corresponding to purchase transactions, not a receipt of money during the year. As the purchases, stock particulars and export sales were accepted, the trade payable could not be characterised as unexplained cash credit. Treating both the purchases and the corresponding outstanding creditor as taxable would also result in double addition.

Conclusion: The addition under section 68 in respect of the trade payable was deleted in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: Accepted purchase and export transactions cannot be disallowed on an unsupported assumption of cash payment, and the corresponding unpaid supplier balance is not assessable as unexplained cash credit.

Ratio Decidendi: A disallowance for cash expenditure requires proof of actual prohibited cash payment, while a trade credit arising from accepted purchases, without receipt of money during the year, is not an unexplained cash credit.

Issues: (i) Whether the unsecured loans were liable to be assessed as unexplained cash credits; (ii) Whether employees' PF/ESI contributions deposited after the welfare-law due date but before the return-filing due date were deductible.

Issue (i): Whether the unsecured loans were liable to be assessed as unexplained cash credits.

Analysis: Section 68 requires the assessee to establish the identity of the creditor, genuineness of the transaction, and prima facie creditworthiness. Confirmations, PAN particulars, bank records, income-tax details, running loan accounts, and repayments through banking channels discharged the initial burden. The onus consequently shifted to the Revenue to rebut that evidence through meaningful inquiry. Low returned income, cash deposits preceding loan advances, or incomplete documentation could justify further investigation, but could not alone establish that the credits represented the assessee's undisclosed income. No lender was examined, no effective inquiry into the source of deposits was conducted, and no material established that the transactions were sham or that the funds originated from the assessee.

Conclusion: The unsecured loans were not unexplained cash credits, and the addition was deleted in favour of the assessee.

Issue (ii): Whether employees' PF/ESI contributions deposited after the welfare-law due date but before the return-filing due date were deductible.

Analysis: Employees' contributions are deductible under Section 36(1)(va) only when deposited within the due date prescribed under the applicable welfare legislation. Deposit before the due date for filing the income-tax return does not cure a delay beyond the statutory welfare-law due date.

Conclusion: The delayed employees' PF/ESI contributions were not deductible, against the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The cash-credit addition is unsustainable, whereas the disallowance of delayed employees' PF/ESI contributions remains payable.

Ratio Decidendi: Once an assessee establishes the identity of creditors, genuineness of banking transactions, and prima facie creditworthiness, an addition for unexplained cash credits cannot rest on suspicion without cogent rebuttal evidence obtained through proper inquiry.

Issues: Whether an unsigned assessment order issued through e-assessment proceedings was valid and could be remanded for fresh assessment.

Analysis: Digital signing of an assessment order issued in e-assessment proceedings was mandatory under CBDT Instruction No. 1/2018 dated 12.02.2018. The assessment order contained only a note concerning the date of a digital signature, while no digital signature was present. An assessment order remains incomplete unless signed; absence of signature is a jurisdictional defect and not a curable procedural irregularity. Consequently, remanding such an invalid order for fresh adjudication was impermissible.

Conclusion: The unsigned assessment order was non est and invalid and was quashed, in favour of the assessee.

Issues: (i) Whether the assessment was vitiated because the Assessing Officer acted on the directions and inputs of a superior authority instead of exercising independent statutory discretion; (ii) Whether the addition of alleged undisclosed consideration on sale of industrial plots could be sustained on WhatsApp chats, images and a third-party statement without corroborative evidence and cross-examination.

Issue (i): Whether the assessment was vitiated because the Assessing Officer acted on the directions and inputs of a superior authority instead of exercising independent statutory discretion.

Analysis: The assessment order expressly recorded that issues arising from the appraisal report were regularly discussed with the Additional Commissioner and that directions and inputs from those discussions were incorporated in the assessment proceedings. Administrative supervision may ensure proper conduct of proceedings, but evaluation of evidence and determination of taxable income are quasi-judicial functions entrusted exclusively to the Assessing Officer. Statutory discretion cannot be surrendered or exercised under the dictates of a superior authority.

Conclusion: The assessment was vitiated for want of the Assessing Officer's independent application of mind, in favour of the assessee.

Issue (ii): Whether the addition of alleged undisclosed consideration on sale of industrial plots could be sustained on WhatsApp chats, images and a third-party statement without corroborative evidence and cross-examination.

Analysis: The seized material for the relevant year did not evidence cash consideration for the plots sold; the sole material relating to one plot was a brokerage-related WhatsApp chat. Rates reflected in chats and in the third-party statement related to developed plots, whereas the recorded transactions concerned undeveloped plots. Purchaser statements denied any cash payment and supported the registered consideration; the valuation report and comparable sale instances also remained unrebutted. The presumptions concerning material found during search were rebuttable and could not, without corroboration, cash trail, purchaser admission, or opportunity to cross-examine the third party whose statement was relied upon, justify extrapolation of an alleged rate to all plots.

Conclusion: The alleged on-money addition was unsupported by reliable corroborative evidence and was deleted, in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: An assessment must rest on the Assessing Officer's own quasi-judicial satisfaction, and uncorroborated third-party electronic communications cannot establish undisclosed sale consideration where direct transactional evidence supports the recorded consideration.

Ratio Decidendi: A quasi-judicial assessment is invalid if statutory discretion is exercised under superior-authority dictates, and a rebuttable search presumption cannot sustain an addition for undisclosed consideration without reliable corroboration and effective opportunity to confront adverse evidence.

Issues: Whether the notice issued for reassessment under Section 148 for the relevant assessment year was barred by limitation and without jurisdiction.

Analysis: The reassessment notice was issued on 30.11.2023, whereas the limitation under the pre-amendment regime had expired earlier. The amended reassessment provisions did not revive a time-barred case, and the first proviso to Section 149(1) prohibited issuance of a notice where such notice could not have been issued under the earlier limitation provisions. The notice also concerned the same underlying issue previously raised in proceedings under Section 153C.

Conclusion: The notice under Section 148 was time-barred and without jurisdiction, in favour of the assessee.

Issues: (i) Whether AY 2005-06 reassessment was valid where approval under section 151 was obtained after issuance of notice under section 148; (ii) Whether AY 2007-08 reassessment could survive when the additions forming the recorded reasons did not survive, while other additions were made independently; (iii) Whether interest paid for delayed payment of indirect taxes was disallowable under section 40(a)(ii); (iv) Whether interest could be disallowed under section 36(1)(iii) in respect of interest-free advances where sufficient own funds were available.

Issue (i): Whether AY 2005-06 reassessment was valid where approval under section 151 was obtained after issuance of notice under section 148.

Analysis: The statutory approval required for reopening was sought and obtained only after the notice under section 148 had already been issued. Prior approval is an essential jurisdictional condition for issuance of the notice.

Conclusion: The assumption of reassessment jurisdiction was invalid and the reassessment was void ab initio, in favour of the assessee.

Issue (ii): Whether AY 2007-08 reassessment could survive when the additions forming the recorded reasons did not survive, while other additions were made independently.

Analysis: The turnover difference forming one recorded reason resulted in no addition, and the net-profit addition forming the other recorded reason was deleted in first appeal. Since appellate proceedings continue the assessment proceedings, no addition on either recorded reason survived. Additions on independent issues could not be sustained when the foundation for reopening had failed.

Conclusion: The reopening was invalid and the reassessment was quashed, in favour of the assessee.

Issue (iii): Whether interest paid for delayed payment of indirect taxes was disallowable under section 40(a)(ii).

Analysis: Section 40(a)(ii) applies to direct taxes and does not cover indirect taxes such as excise duty and service tax. Interest for delayed payment of such indirect taxes is compensatory and constitutes an allowable business deduction.

Conclusion: The disallowance of interest on delayed payment of indirect taxes was deleted, in favour of the assessee.

Issue (iv): Whether interest could be disallowed under section 36(1)(iii) in respect of interest-free advances where sufficient own funds were available.

Analysis: The assessee's own interest-free funds substantially exceeded the interest-free advances. In those circumstances, the advances were presumed to have been made from own funds rather than borrowed funds.

Conclusion: No interest disallowance was permissible under section 36(1)(iii), and the disallowance was deleted, in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The reassessments for AYs 2005-06 and 2007-08 were nullified for jurisdictional defects, and the disputed interest disallowances for AY 2010-11 were removed.

Issues: Whether penalty for acceptance of cash sale consideration in contravention of Section 269SS was sustainable under Section 271D.

Analysis: The assessee's case was identical to that of a co-owner in the same land-sale transaction, in which penalty had been deleted. The accepted factual basis included fragmented family ownership, agricultural background, urgency to sell, acceptance of part consideration in cash at the purchaser's insistence, bona fide lack of awareness of the restriction, and subsequent disclosure of the entire consideration for taxation. The treatment of another co-owner in relation to the same transaction also supported parity. These circumstances were treated as constituting reasonable cause for purposes of the penalty provisions.

Conclusion: The penalty under Section 271D was deleted; the issue was decided in favour of the assessee.

Issues: (i) Whether interest on borrowings used to acquire assets held for resale was deductible under Section 36(1)(iii) of the Income-tax Act, 1961; (ii) Whether expenditure incurred in acquiring such assets was deductible as revenue expenditure under Section 37(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

Issue (i): Whether interest on borrowings used to acquire assets held for resale was deductible under Section 36(1)(iii) of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

Analysis: Section 36(1)(iii) allows interest on capital borrowed for business purposes, while its proviso excludes interest attributable to acquisition of an asset until it is first put to use. The acquired plant, machinery, scrap, land and building were treated as current assets or stock-in-trade for the assessee's business of purchasing and reselling assets. The assessee was not engaged in, and did not intend to undertake, tyre manufacturing. As the assets were held for sale and not for use in manufacturing or any other business operation, the requirement of putting the assets to use did not arise.

Conclusion: The interest expenditure was revenue expenditure incurred for business purposes and was deductible under Section 36(1)(iii) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, in favour of the assessee.

Issue (ii): Whether expenditure incurred in acquiring such assets was deductible as revenue expenditure under Section 37(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

Analysis: Section 37(1) excludes capital expenditure from deduction. The expenses were incurred in connection with acquiring current assets held as stock-in-trade in the assessee's resale business. Since the acquisition was not of capital assets for the assessee's own operational use, the expenditure did not bear capital character.

Conclusion: The expenditure was allowable as revenue expenditure under Section 37(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The disallowances of interest expenditure and acquisition-related expenditure were deleted on the basis that the assets constituted stock-in-trade or current assets held for resale.

Ratio Decidendi: Interest and related expenditure incurred for acquiring assets held as stock-in-trade for resale in the ordinary course of business are revenue deductions; the proviso to Section 36(1)(iii) does not apply where the assets are not acquired for the assessee's own use.

Issues: (i) Whether the ad hoc disallowance of club membership, subscription and service expenses was sustainable; (ii) Whether disallowance under Section 14A of the Income-tax Act, 1961, including interest under Rule 8D(2)(ii) and administrative expenditure, was sustainable; (iii) Whether depreciation and additional depreciation were allowable on the bore finishing machine claimed to have been installed and put to use before the end of the year; (iv) Whether electrical installations integral to manufacturing plant and machinery qualified for additional depreciation.

Issue (i): Whether the ad hoc disallowance of club membership, subscription and service expenses was sustainable.

Analysis: The disallowance was made without identifying any particular payment as personal or non-business in character, or stating a basis for disallowing only part of expenditure under the same head. The company established that club facilities were used by its executives for business interactions. Club expenditure is deductible where incurred wholly and exclusively for business, and an incidental personal benefit does not alter its business character.

Conclusion: The club-expense disallowance was deleted in favour of the assessee.

Issue (ii): Whether disallowance under Section 14A of the Income-tax Act, 1961, including interest under Rule 8D(2)(ii) and administrative expenditure, was sustainable.

Analysis: The assessee's own funds substantially exceeded its investments, and its borrowings were demonstrated to be for specified business purposes. A presumption consequently arose that the investments were made from own funds, precluding interest disallowance. Although some administrative expenditure related to exempt income could be attributed, the disallowance could not exceed the exempt dividend income earned.

Conclusion: Interest disallowance was deleted, and the administrative-expense disallowance was restricted to the exempt income of Rs. 6,000, in favour of the assessee to that extent.

Issue (iii): Whether depreciation and additional depreciation were allowable on the bore finishing machine claimed to have been installed and put to use before the end of the year.

Analysis: Contemporaneous internal machine handover records and capitalisation records showed that the machine had been installed and deployed before year-end. No material established that it was put to use only in a later year. The absence of a third-party installation certificate was not determinative where installation had been undertaken by the assessee's in-house technical team.

Conclusion: Depreciation and additional depreciation on the bore finishing machine were allowable in full, in favour of the assessee.

Issue (iv): Whether electrical installations integral to manufacturing plant and machinery qualified for additional depreciation.

Analysis: The electrical wires, switches, cables, MCB boxes and control panels were required to operate the manufacturing machinery. Their classification depended on their functional use rather than their individual description. No specific part of the installations was identified as independently used for non-manufacturing purposes or as falling within a statutory exclusion; therefore, an estimated 50% disallowance was unsustainable.

Conclusion: The electrical installations forming an integral part of manufacturing plant and machinery qualified for additional depreciation in full, in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The challenged additions and disallowances were deleted or suitably curtailed, with the Section 14A administrative component confined to the exempt income earned.

Issues: Whether an actuarially determined provision for accumulated non-encashable sick leave, carry-forwardable and availed as paid leave in subsequent periods, is allowable as business expenditure.

Analysis: Employees earned the entitlement to carry forward and avail paid sick leave through services rendered during the relevant year. Although the leave could not be encashed, its future utilisation required the assessee to permit paid absence while receiving no services for that period, creating an economic and financial obligation. The inability to identify the particular employees or timing of future utilisation did not render the liability contingent where the obligation was scientifically estimated through actuarial valuation. Section 43B(f) applies to sums payable in lieu of leave and was inapplicable because no amount was payable on account of leave encashment. A consistently accepted accounting treatment for an identical recurring item could not ordinarily be disturbed without a material change in facts or law.

Conclusion: The provision for accumulated sick leave represented an accrued and reasonably ascertainable business liability deductible under Section 37(1); it was not a contingent liability and was not governed by Section 43B(f). The issue was decided in favour of the assessee.

Issues: (i) Whether the assessments were invalid for want of separate and valid approval under section 153D of the Income-tax Act, 1961 for each assessment year; (ii) What rate of commission income should be assessed on the alleged accommodation-entry loan transactions.

Issue (i): Whether the assessments were invalid for want of separate and valid approval under section 153D of the Income-tax Act, 1961 for each assessment year.

Analysis: Section 292BC of the Income-tax Act, 1961, inserted by the Finance Act, 2026 with retrospective effect from 01.04.2021, precludes invalidation of approvals on grounds concerning sufficiency of reasons or defects in the form or manner of authentication. The challenge to the common approval did not therefore invalidate the assessments.

Conclusion: The assessments were valid; the issue is decided against the assessee.

Issue (ii): What rate of commission income should be assessed on the alleged accommodation-entry loan transactions.

Analysis: The differing rates adopted by the Assessing Officer and the uniform 3.6% rate adopted by the appellate authority lacked discussion of relevant market comparables in the accommodation-entry segment. Since the assessee had sought complete deletion rather than offered a commission component, neither of the prior estimations warranted acceptance in full. Exercising jurisdiction under section 254(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, a uniform rate was considered appropriate on the peculiar facts without precedential effect.

Conclusion: Commission income on the impugned accommodation entries shall be assessed uniformly at 0.15%; the issue is decided in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The statutory challenge to the assessments fails, but the taxable commission attributable to the alleged accommodation entries is confined to a uniform 0.15% rate.

Ratio Decidendi: Where section 292BC applies retrospectively, an assessment cannot be invalidated merely because approval under section 153D is alleged to be deficient in reasons, form, or authentication.

Issues: (i) Whether the penalty for under-reporting of income in consequence of misreporting under Section 270A(9) was sustainable where the notice did not specify the applicable charge and the assessment was framed under Section 143(3) following a search; (ii) Whether penalty under Section 271AAD could be levied for omission of professional receipts represented by cash found during search.

Issue (i): Whether the penalty for under-reporting of income in consequence of misreporting under Section 270A(9) was sustainable where the notice did not specify the applicable charge and the assessment was framed under Section 143(3) following a search.

Analysis: Section 270A distinguishes under-reporting from under-reporting resulting from misreporting, while Section 270A(9) identifies distinct categories of misreporting. A notice under Section 274 must therefore identify the precise charge, including the applicable clause of Section 270A(9), so that an effective opportunity to respond is afforded. The undifferentiated notice and assessment-recorded initiation did not identify the relevant statutory limb, demonstrating non-application of mind and violating principles of natural justice.

Analysis: The assessment for the year preceding the search was framed under Section 143(3) on a notice under Section 143(2), without recourse to the procedure under Sections 148 and 149. Its validity could be challenged in the collateral penalty proceeding. Further, the additional professional income disclosed after search was accepted without further addition; its admission and tax payment, without more, did not establish misreporting attracting Section 270A(9).

Conclusion: The penalty under Section 270A(9) was invalid and was directed to be deleted, in favour of the assessee.

Issue (ii): Whether penalty under Section 271AAD could be levied for omission of professional receipts represented by cash found during search.

Analysis: Section 271AAD addresses false entries and omissions in books relevant to computing total income with the object of evading tax. Its legislative purpose is to curb fraudulent documentation and fake invoices, particularly those used to claim inadmissible input tax credit. Unaccounted cash explained and offered as professional income did not fall within that statutory mischief. Independently, the penalty lacked a valid assessment foundation because the assessment itself was jurisdictionally defective.

Conclusion: The penalty under Section 271AAD was unsustainable and was directed to be deleted, in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The penalty actions lacked both a valid jurisdictional foundation and the statutory conditions required for their imposition.

Ratio Decidendi: A penalty for misreporting under Section 270A(9) cannot rest on a notice that fails to specify the precise statutory charge, since such omission deprives the assessee of a meaningful opportunity to answer the allegation.

Issues: (i) Whether the admission order was vitiated by denial of natural justice through inadequate service of the insolvency petition; (ii) Whether the application under Section 7 was barred by limitation; (iii) Whether a bona fide defence to the existence of financial debt and default was disclosed.

Issue (i): Whether the admission order was vitiated by denial of natural justice through inadequate service of the insolvency petition.

Analysis: Repeated notices were directed through speed post and e-mail over several hearings and months, with further opportunities granted after the initial postal failure. The registered office had admittedly remained closed for years, notwithstanding the continuing obligation to maintain an office capable of receiving communications. Service by e-mail was independently permissible, and no material established failure of that mode or mala fide avoidance of service. The opportunities afforded satisfied the requirement of reasonable opportunity before proceeding ex parte.

Conclusion: The admission order was not vitiated by violation of the principles of natural justice; this issue was decided against the Appellant.

Issue (ii): Whether the application under Section 7 was barred by limitation.

Analysis: The corporate guarantee was payable on demand. The guarantee expressly provided that acknowledgments by the principal borrower would operate as acknowledgments by the corporate guarantor. Written settlement proposals made before expiry of the applicable periods acknowledged the outstanding liability and, under Section 18 of the Limitation Act, successively renewed limitation. The Section 7 application was filed within the renewed limitation period. The absence of established service of the earlier guarantee-invocation notice did not alter that result.

Conclusion: The Section 7 application was within limitation; this issue was decided against the Appellant.

Issue (iii): Whether a bona fide defence to the existence of financial debt and default was disclosed.

Analysis: The sanction and disbursement of the loan, execution of the corporate guarantee, NPA classification, and subsequent written acknowledgments of liability were undisputed. No case of discharge, revocation or unenforceability of the guarantee, or inaccuracy of the claimed amount was raised. The material therefore established financial debt and default for the limited inquiry required under Section 7.

Conclusion: No bona fide defence to financial debt and default was disclosed; this issue was decided against the Appellant.

Final Conclusion: The initiation of the corporate insolvency resolution process on the established debt and default remains legally sustainable.

Ratio Decidendi: A contractual stipulation making a principal borrower's written acknowledgment binding upon a corporate guarantor permits that acknowledgment to extend limitation against the guarantor, provided it is made within the subsisting limitation period.

Issues: Whether an employee can be denied credit for tax deducted at source from salary merely because the employer-deductor failed to deposit it, and subjected to a consequential demand and recovery from refund.

Analysis: Under Section 143(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, the intimation disallowed credit for tax deducted from the assessee's salary because the deductor had not deposited it. The deductor's failure to remit the deducted tax could not be attributed to the assessee or deprive the assessee of the legitimate credit for such deduction. The consequential recovery from the assessee's refund lacked legal basis.

Conclusion: Credit for the tax deducted at source by the employer must be granted notwithstanding the employer's non-deposit of that tax; the related demand and recovery from refund are illegal, and the recovered amount is refundable with applicable interest.

Issues: Whether the revenue may withhold the entire determined refund when only a smaller outstanding demand is proposed for adjustment.

Analysis: Under Section 245 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, where adjustment of a refund against an outstanding demand is proposed, only the amount proposed to be adjusted may be retained. The balance of the refund must be remitted immediately, while the parties retain their right to contest whether the proposed adjustment itself is legally sustainable.

Conclusion: The assessee is entitled to release of the refund amount exceeding the proposed adjustment, in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: A proposed adjustment of refund against an outstanding demand permits retention only to the extent of the proposed adjustment and not of the entire refund.

Issues: Whether the Tribunal's decision, founded on the erroneous premise that the assessee had pursued the Dispute Resolution Panel route, could be sustained.

Analysis: The Tribunal's reasoning proceeded throughout on the assumption that the assessee had pursued proceedings before the Dispute Resolution Panel, although the assessee had instead elected the appellate route before the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals). A decision based on such a materially incorrect factual foundation is perverse. No adjudication was made on the parties' contentions concerning limitation or any other assessment issue.

Conclusion: The Tribunal's findings were perverse and could not be sustained; all issues, including limitation, remain open for fresh adjudication in accordance with law.

Outcome: The departmental appeal was dismissed, with provision for revival after final disposal of the connected Supreme Court appeal.

Issues: (i) Whether fee-based payment and settlement services rendered by a charitable entity attracted the proviso to Section 2(15) and disentitled it to exemption under Sections 11 and 12; (ii) Whether the payment-system activities resulted in application of income for the benefit of specified persons under Section 13(1)(c)(ii) read with Section 13(3).

Issue (i): Whether fee-based payment and settlement services rendered by a charitable entity attracted the proviso to Section 2(15) and disentitled it to exemption under Sections 11 and 12.

Analysis: The entity was incorporated on a non-profit basis to establish and operate secure, efficient and cost-effective national payment and clearing infrastructure under the regulatory framework of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007. Its surplus could not be distributed to members and was required to be applied towards its objects. The fees collected from participating banks funded technology-intensive operations and had been reduced over time. The payment-system infrastructure was operated for improving clearing mechanisms, expanding secure electronic payments and benefiting the public at large, rather than as a commercial venture. On identical facts for earlier years, the primary and dominant object was found to be charitable; charging fees and generating surplus incidental to that object did not alter that character. No distinguishing facts were shown for the years in question.

Conclusion: The proviso to Section 2(15) did not apply, and the assessee remained entitled to exemption under Sections 11 and 12. The conclusion is in favour of the assessee.

Issue (ii): Whether the payment-system activities resulted in application of income for the benefit of specified persons under Section 13(1)(c)(ii) read with Section 13(3).

Analysis: Payment-system facilities were uniformly available to all users at the same charges, without any concessional treatment to the promoter banks. Subscription to share capital did not by itself establish that the promoter banks were substantial contributors or that the entity's income had been directly or indirectly applied for their benefit.

Conclusion: No violation of Section 13(1)(c)(ii) read with Section 13(3) was established. The conclusion is in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The charitable character of the payment-system activities and the availability of the statutory exemption were sustained for both assessment years.

Ratio Decidendi: Fees and incidental surplus from activities undertaken to advance a genuine general-public-utility object do not attract the proviso to Section 2(15) where the dominant purpose remains charitable and no income is applied for the benefit of specified persons.