Issues: Whether exclusion of a company as a transfer-pricing comparable was justified and free from perversity.

Analysis: Under Rule 10B, selection or exclusion of comparables is a factual and data-driven exercise. The assessee was a contract service provider, while the proposed comparable had diverse functions, significant tangibles and inventories. No relevant material was excluded or irrelevant material considered.

Conclusion: The exclusion of the proposed comparable stands; no perversity was established.

Ratio Decidendi: A factual, data-driven determination of transfer-pricing comparability does not warrant appellate interference absent perversity.

Issues: Whether the reference to the absence of a draft assessment order constituted an error apparent warranting review of the order quashing the assessment.

Analysis: The record contained an earlier draft assessment order. The parties did not dispute that no revised draft assessment order had been passed before the final assessment, as required under Section 144B of the Income-tax Act, 1961. The reference to a draft assessment order in the earlier order was a misnomer for the revised draft assessment order.

Conclusion: Review was not warranted, and the order quashing the assessment remained undisturbed.

Ratio Decidendi: A misdescription in an order does not warrant review as an error apparent when it does not alter the undisputed premise of the decision.

Issues: Whether allegations concerning delayed customs clearance warranted a direction for investigation of customs officials.

Analysis: The declared description and value of the goods appeared incorrect, and the higher value identified by customs was not disputed. Customs communicated its reasons for withholding immediate clearance shortly after the goods arrived. The allegations were assessed against the standards of arbitrariness, mala fides and abuse of statutory power.

Conclusion: No direction for investigation was warranted.

Ratio Decidendi: Unsubstantiated allegations of arbitrariness, mala fides or abuse of statutory power do not warrant a direction for investigation.

Issues: (i) Whether the fermented grape beverage with added sugar could be treated as a fruit pulp or fruit juice based drink under HSN 2202 9920; (ii) Whether the exact HSN classification and applicable tax rate could be determined on the evidence produced.

Issue (i): Whether the fermented grape beverage with added sugar could be treated as a fruit pulp or fruit juice based drink under HSN 2202 9920.

Analysis: The use of yeast and the fermentation process distinguish the product from normal fruit juice. The regulatory definition of wine also characterises it as a fermented fruit beverage. These characteristics exclude its treatment as a fruit pulp or fruit juice based drink.

Conclusion: The product cannot be treated as a fruit pulp or fruit juice based drink under HSN 2202 9920. This conclusion is against the assessee.

Issue (ii): Whether the exact HSN classification and applicable tax rate could be determined on the evidence produced.

Analysis: A beverage qualifies as non-alcoholic only where its alcohol content does not exceed 0.5% alcohol by volume. The earlier test report showed alcohol content of 2%, while the later private laboratory report was not accepted as valid documentary proof for establishing the alcohol content. The necessary evidence to determine the precise classification and rate was therefore unavailable.

Conclusion: The exact HSN classification and applicable tax rate could not be determined on the available evidence.

Final Conclusion: The proposed fruit juice based-drink classification was excluded, but no ruling was made on the precise classification or rate because valid proof of alcohol content was not established.

Issues: (i) Whether the supply, erection, testing and commissioning of fire protection system constitutes a composite supply; (ii) Whether the completed fire protection system is movable or immovable property for GST purposes; (iii) Whether the contract for supply, erection, testing and commissioning of fire protection system is a works contract classifiable under SAC 9954 and taxable at 12%.

Issue (i): Whether the supply, erection, testing and commissioning of fire protection system constitutes a composite supply.

Analysis: Section 2(30) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 requires two or more taxable supplies to be naturally bundled and supplied together in the ordinary course of business, with one principal supply. The equipment supply and the associated erection, testing and commissioning services formed an integrated and naturally bundled arrangement.

Conclusion: The supply is a composite supply. This issue is answered in favour of the assessee.

Issue (ii): Whether the completed fire protection system is movable or immovable property for GST purposes.

Analysis: The installation required site preparation, construction of RCC pedestals or platforms, electrical wiring, connection of pipes, valves and gauges, testing and commissioning. The completed system was intended as permanent fire-protection infrastructure and could not be removed or relocated without substantial dismantling.

Conclusion: The completed fire protection system is immovable property for GST purposes. This issue is answered against the assessee.

Issue (iii): Whether the contract for supply, erection, testing and commissioning of fire protection system is a works contract classifiable under SAC 9954 and taxable at 12%.

Analysis: Section 2(119) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 covers contracts involving transfer of property in goods in the erection, installation or commissioning of immovable property. Paragraph 6(a) of Schedule II treats such works contracts as supplies of services. The electrical fire-alarm work and firefighting water-piping, sprinkler and hydrant-network work fall under Heading 9954. The earthwork component was only a negligible part of the contract value and did not satisfy the predominant-earthwork requirement under Item 3(vii) of Notification No. 11/2017-Central Tax (Rate) dated 28.06.2017.

Conclusion: The contract is a works contract classifiable under SAC 9954, but it is not taxable at 12%. This issue is answered partly in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The integrated supply and installation arrangement is treated as a works-contract service because it results in permanent immovable infrastructure, and it is ineligible for the claimed 12% rate.

Ratio Decidendi: A contract involving transfer of goods in the creation and installation of permanent immovable infrastructure is a works contract treated as a supply of services, and the concessional works-contract rate applies only where the statutory predominant-earthwork condition is met.

Issues: Whether the three attached properties constituted benami properties under Section 2(9)(A) of the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988, and whether confirmation of their provisional attachment was justified.

Analysis: A benami transaction requires that consideration be provided by a person other than the ostensible holder and that the property be held for that person's benefit. The sworn statement of the registered holder identifying the appellants as the actual owners was corroborated by the subsequent transfers of two properties to members of the appellants' family, the unexplained reduction in the value of one property on transfer, and the role of persons connected with an appellant in the registrations. The bank records contained no entries substantiating that the registered holder funded the purchases or the subsequent transfers. The claimed agricultural income, sale proceeds of ancestral land, and other sources were unsupported by reliable financial documentation. The subsequent retraction of the earlier sworn statement lacked a credible explanation and did not displace the corroborative circumstances. The restrictions on transfer of Scheduled Caste land under the Uttar Pradesh Revenue Code, 2006 further supported the inference that the registered holder's name had been used to circumvent those restrictions.

Conclusion: The properties were benami properties; the appellants were the beneficial owners and the registered holder was the benamidar. The provisional attachment was rightly confirmed.

Issues: Whether appeals challenging penalties for contraventions under the repealed FERA are maintainable in the criminal appellate jurisdiction despite the appeal provision under FEMA.

Analysis: The statutory savings under Section 49 of FEMA and Section 6 of the General Clauses Act preserve offences, accrued penal liabilities, penalties and legal proceedings arising under FERA. Section 35 of FEMA supplies the appellate forum but does not alter the penal character of a saved FERA adjudication. The Original Side revenue-appeal procedure applies to civil contraventions under FEMA and not to saved penal proceedings under FERA. Judicial parity further supports consistent criminal-appellate treatment of the identical penal adjudication.

Conclusion: The appeals are maintainable as criminal appeals, and the preliminary objection to maintainability is overruled.

Issues: Whether GST liabilities, including liabilities arising during the insolvency moratorium and corporate insolvency resolution process, are extinguished when a corporate debtor is sold as a going concern in liquidation under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.

Analysis: A sale as a going concern under Section 33 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 read with Regulation 32(e), Regulation 32A and Regulation 39C(2) of the applicable Regulations involves transfer of the corporate debtor as a composite undertaking with its identified assets and liabilities. It is distinct from a sale of assets under Regulation 32(a) to (d), which culminates in realisation and distribution of liquidation proceeds. Approval of the going-concern sale did not authorise a transfer of assets alone without the corporate debtor's liabilities, and the purchaser assumed the associated commercial risk. The reference in the liquidation-sale order to clean-slate relief did not constitute an independent adjudication that tax liabilities stood extinguished.

Conclusion: GST dues were not extinguished by the going-concern sale, and the clean-slate principle could not be invoked to avoid past, current, or moratorium-period liabilities. This issue was decided against the assessee.

Issues: Whether blocking input tax credit under Rule 86A without an effective pre-decisional opportunity, including adequate time to furnish and substantiate supporting documents, was lawful.

Analysis: Rule 86A, as applied to blocking of electronic credit, entails serious civil consequences and requires an effective pre-decisional hearing consistent with the principles of natural justice. The three-day notice did not provide a sufficient opportunity to place transaction records and supporting documents for consideration before the credit was blocked.

Conclusion: The order blocking input tax credit and consequential actions were quashed. The credit was directed to be unblocked, with a direction to afford an appropriate opportunity before any fresh action under Rule 86A is taken in accordance with law.

Issues: Whether Foreign Tax Credit under section 90 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 can be denied solely because Form No. 67 was filed belatedly, despite disclosure of foreign income and evidence of foreign tax payment.

Analysis: Foreign Tax Credit is available under the applicable Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement and section 90 where the substantive conditions are satisfied. The assessee disclosed the foreign income and furnished documentary evidence of taxes paid in the United States. Delay in filing Form No. 67 is a procedural lapse and, by itself, does not negate entitlement to credit where the substantive requirements are otherwise fulfilled.

Conclusion: Foreign Tax Credit cannot be denied merely for delayed filing of Form No. 67 when the substantive conditions for the credit are satisfied; the credit claim is allowable in favour of the assessee.

Outcome: The grievance concerning issuance of duplicate SIM cards was treated as redressed.

Issues: Whether the penalty imposed under Section 112(a)(ii) of the Customs Act, 1962 for alleged involvement in routing Chinese-origin goods through Malaysia to evade anti-dumping duty was sustainable.

Analysis: Earlier rulings arising from the same investigation and materially identical allegations had found that the Revenue had not discharged its burden of proof regarding the alleged procurement of false certificates of origin and that the electronic material relied upon lacked evidentiary admissibility. No contrary ruling was shown. Independently, no evidence established that the certificates of origin were unauthorised, forged, or discrepant, and the prescribed verification process was not undertaken. The statements relied upon had been retracted, cross-examination was denied despite the safeguards under Section 138B of the Customs Act, 1962, and no legally admissible material established the appellant's knowledge of or aiding and abetting in the alleged contravention.

Conclusion: The statutory ingredients for penalty under Section 112(a)(ii) of the Customs Act, 1962 were not established; the penalty was set aside in favour of the assessee.

Issues: Whether service tax was payable under the reverse-charge mechanism on management consultancy service received from abroad and rendered before 18.04.2006.

Analysis: The service was rendered in March 2006, before the effective date of Section 66A. The applicable legal position was that a reverse-charge tax levy on services received from abroad could not be imposed for the period preceding 18.04.2006. The issue was also covered by an earlier decision involving the same assessee.

Conclusion: No service tax was payable under the reverse-charge mechanism for the service rendered before 18.04.2006; the confirmed demand was unsustainable.

Issues: Whether cancellation of GST registration for non-filing of returns could be sustained where the cancellation proceedings were materially similar to an earlier decided case.

Analysis: The cancellation arose from non-filing of returns required under Section 39 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. The matter was found to be factually similar to the previously decided case relied upon, and the assessee was held entitled to corresponding relief. Directions were also issued for filing overdue returns, payment of statutory dues, and computation of the limitation period under Sections 73(10) and 74(10) from the date of the order, subject to the stated treatment of financial year 2026-27.

Conclusion: The cancellation order was quashed in favour of the assessee, with consequential compliance directions.

Issues: Whether orders treating the assessee as an assessee in default for failure to deduct tax at source on external development charges under Section 194I could be sustained.

Analysis: Sections 201(1) and 201(1A) permit consequences for a person in default in deducting tax at source. The issue of deduction under Section 194I on external development charges paid to the development authority had already been conclusively settled by an earlier decision in favour of the assessee. The impugned original order and the consequential rejection of rectification were contrary to that binding determination. Relegating the assessee to the appellate remedy in these circumstances would be redundant and inefficacious.

Conclusion: The orders treating the assessee as in default and refusing rectification were illegal and were quashed; the issue is decided in favour of the assessee.

Issues: (i) Whether registration under Section 12A(1)(ac)(iii) could be refused at the inception stage on the apprehension that accommodation charges might make the activities commercial; (ii) Whether approval under Section 80G(5)(iii) could be directed without an independent inquiry by the competent authority.

Issue (i): Whether registration under Section 12A(1)(ac)(iii) could be refused at the inception stage on the apprehension that accommodation charges might make the activities commercial.

Analysis: For initial registration, the relevant inquiry is into the stated objects, project report, and purpose for which the institution is established. Non-commencement of operations does not permit a conclusive presumption that activities will be commercial. Recovery of partial, subsidised, or concessional charges for accommodation or services does not by itself negate charitable character. The undertaking that units would not be sold also removed the apprehension of an outright-sale activity.

Conclusion: Registration under Section 12A(1)(ac)(iii) must be granted; decided in favour of the assessee.

Issue (ii): Whether approval under Section 80G(5)(iii) could be directed without an independent inquiry by the competent authority.

Analysis: Registration under Section 12A entails a preliminary examination of objects, whereas Section 80G approval confers donor-related tax benefits and requires separate satisfaction of the statutory prerequisites under the third proviso to Section 80G(5). Acceptance of registration under Section 12A does not automatically require approval under Section 80G. The project proposal alone did not support an appellate direction granting Section 80G approval without the required inquiry by the competent authority.

Conclusion: The direction granting approval under Section 80G(5)(iii) is set aside, and the application requires fresh determination by the competent authority; decided in favour of the Revenue.

Final Conclusion: Initial charitable registration is to be granted, while approval enabling donor deductions remains subject to an independent statutory examination.

Ratio Decidendi: Approval under Section 80G cannot follow automatically from registration under Section 12A and requires an independent inquiry into the applicable statutory conditions.

Issues: (i) Allowability of expenditure on replacement of dies and moulds; (ii) Deduction under Section 35(1)(iv); (iii) Deduction under Section 35(2AB) for research and development expenditure; (iv) Deduction under Section 80-IA on notional profit from captive power generation; (v) Allowability of agency commissions paid to foreign agents; (vi) Depreciation rate for UPS and voltage stabilizers; (vii) Depreciation rate for temporary construction.

Issue (i): Allowability of expenditure on replacement of dies and moulds.

Analysis: Replacement dies and moulds attached to manufacturing machinery were treated as components necessary for restoring the machinery's specified output, rather than as independent plant and machinery. The expenditure consequently fell for consideration under Section 31 of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

Conclusion: In favour of the assessee: expenditure on replacement of dies and moulds is allowable.

Issue (ii): Deduction under Section 35(1)(iv).

Analysis: The issue was governed by the established treatment of the assessee's claim under Section 35(1)(iv) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, which had sustained the corresponding finding of the Tribunal on materially similar facts.

Conclusion: In favour of the assessee: the deduction under Section 35(1)(iv) is allowable.

Issue (iii): Deduction under Section 35(2AB) for research and development expenditure.

Analysis: The research and development claim, including the component relating to work-in-progress, was governed by the prior determination on identical facts under Section 35(2AB) of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

Conclusion: In favour of the assessee: the deduction under Section 35(2AB) is allowable.

Issue (iv): Deduction under Section 80-IA on notional profit from captive power generation.

Analysis: The computation of profits from the captive power undertaking was governed by the applicable interpretation of Section 80-IA of the Income-tax Act, 1961 and the relevant departmental circular, as applied in the earlier decision on the same issue.

Conclusion: In favour of the assessee: deduction under Section 80-IA on notional profit from captive power generation is allowable.

Issue (v): Allowability of agency commissions paid to foreign agents.

Analysis: No variation in facts or legal position was shown from the earlier final determination concerning commissions paid to foreign agents, including the issue of their characterization under Section 9(1)(vii) of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

Conclusion: In favour of the assessee: the agency commissions are allowable.

Issue (vi): Depreciation rate for UPS and voltage stabilizers.

Analysis: UPS and voltage stabilizers used with computers were treated as integral computer-related equipment. The applicable rate was fixed consistently with the precedents governing depreciation on such equipment.

Conclusion: Partly in favour of the assessee: depreciation on UPS and voltage stabilizers is allowable at 60% instead of 15%.

Issue (vii): Depreciation rate for temporary construction.

Analysis: The temporary construction was a parking shed, for which the applicable depreciation rate under the prior determination was 10%, not 100%.

Conclusion: In favour of the Revenue: depreciation on the temporary construction is allowable only at 10%.

Final Conclusion: The deductions and allowances claimed by the assessee were sustained on the first five issues, depreciation on UPS and voltage stabilizers was confined to 60%, and depreciation on the temporary structure was restricted to 10%.

Issues: (i) Whether the applicants had locus standi for leave to appeal against a direction to register an FIR; (ii) Whether a person accused in a corruption case is entitled to a pre-registration hearing; (iii) Whether a preliminary inquiry is mandatory before registration of an FIR in a corruption case where detailed material discloses a cognizable offence.

Issue (i): Whether the applicants had locus standi for leave to appeal against a direction to register an FIR.

Analysis: The direction was to register an FIR on information disclosing cognizable offences and did not adjudicate any individual legal right of the applicants. Registration of the FIR did not foreclose their remedies to seek its quashing under Article 226 of the Constitution of India before cognizance, or under Section 528 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 thereafter. No prima facie legal injury establishing locus standi for appellate leave was shown.

Conclusion: The applicants were not entitled to leave to challenge the direction to register the FIR.

Issue (ii): Whether a person accused in a corruption case is entitled to a pre-registration hearing.

Analysis: The audi alteram partem rule does not confer on an accused public servant a right to be heard before registration of an FIR. A direction for registration based on material disclosing a cognizable offence is not an adjudication of guilt or of the accused person's legal rights.

Conclusion: An accused in a corruption case has no legal right to be heard before registration of an FIR.

Issue (iii): Whether a preliminary inquiry is mandatory before registration of an FIR in a corruption case where detailed material discloses a cognizable offence.

Analysis: A preliminary inquiry may be desirable in corruption cases but is not mandatory where detailed and reasoned information, including material furnished under Section 66(2) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, prima facie discloses a cognizable offence. In such circumstances, registration of an FIR may proceed without a preliminary inquiry.

Conclusion: The accused cannot demand a preliminary inquiry before registration of an FIR where the available material discloses cognizable corruption offences.

Final Conclusion: The direction to register and investigate the FIR on the material furnished remained legally unobstructed, without prejudice to the accused persons' independent remedies against the FIR or subsequent proceedings.

Ratio Decidendi: Where credible material prima facie discloses a cognizable corruption offence, neither a preliminary inquiry nor a prior hearing to the suspected accused is a condition precedent to registration of an FIR.

Outcome: Delay condoned; review petitions dismissed; applications for oral hearing rejected; pending interlocutory applications disposed of.

Issues: Whether the assessee could be permitted to operate the locker and receive the jewellery kept therein when no tax demand or attachment subsisted.

Analysis: The block assessment had been completed, and the Revenue confirmed that no demand remained outstanding and that no attachment over the locker was in force. The Revenue also raised no objection to the assessee operating the locker in accordance with the bank's procedure and undertook to hand over the jewellery.

Conclusion: The assessee was entitled to operate the locker, and the jewellery was directed to be handed over to him.