Banking-service contingency arrangements require Public Sector Banks and Regional Rural Banks to operate normally on Sunday, 27 September 2026, ahead of a proposed three-day bank strike. Reserve Bank approval permits bank branches, offices, ATM-linked branches and currency chests to remain fully operational. Customers are advised to use mobile banking, ATMs, internet banking, BC Points and UPI if the strike occurs, and to complete essential transactions in advance.

Recognised market infrastructure institutions must comply with institutional and individual codes of conduct, establish specified committees, and adopt key management personnel compensation policies containing malus and clawback arrangements. They must identify core and critical functions, place them in critical operations, regulatory and control, and other-function verticals, and ring-fence regulatory, legal, compliance, risk management and investor-grievance functions. Governance requirements address board composition, director eligibility, public interest director and managing director tenure, conflicts, disclosures and Authority-appointed directors. Clearing corporations must also maintain orderly winding-down arrangements for settlement, positions and member assets.

Inflationary pressures, robust demand, price rises and adverse supply developments are expected to lead to policy-rate tightening by RBI. Fitch anticipates a 25-basis-point rate rise in October, further tightening in early 2027, followed by easing in 2028. Growth projections were upgraded following stronger-than-expected June-quarter activity, but activity is expected to moderate as the effects of GST rationalisation and income-tax cuts recede, manufacturing and services slow, and below-normal monsoon conditions affect activity.

Section 153D makes prior approval by the competent supervisory authority a mandatory condition before passing an assessment under Section 153A. Approval granted on draft orders before completion of required enquiries is ineffective where the approving authority records insufficient time to verify the investigations and directs further verification. If further enquiries are then conducted under Section 142(1), the revised final assessment orders must be placed before the competent authority for fresh prior approval. Passing final orders without such approval renders the assessments void for non-compliance with Section 153D.

GST registration is not required afresh for an IRP/RP where all FORM GSTR-1 statements and FORM GSTR-3B returns for periods before appointment have been furnished under the corporate debtor's existing registration. A subsequent change of IRP/RP is treated as a change of authorised signatory and does not require another registration. Merchant-exporter export conditions expiring during the specified COVID-19 period, and FORM GST ITC-04 for the quarter ending March 2020, are extended to 30 June 2020.

The Regulations are corrected to standardise the numbering of sub-regulations and to renumber regulations 6, 7 and 8 as regulations 5, 6 and 7. Internal references are also corrected, including the substitution of clause 51 for clause 50, clause (sa) for sub-section (sa), sub-regulation (1) for sub-regulation (i), and clauses (a) and (b) of sub-regulation (1) for clauses (i)(a) and (i)(b).

India's GDP growth forecast for the current fiscal year is raised to 7 per cent, supported by investment demand, resilient consumption, manufacturing and services activity, lower-than-expected supply disruptions, and sustained capital inflows. Domestic demand, infrastructure expenditure, regulatory reforms, and improving private investment are expected to support growth. Inflation is projected to remain within the central bank's target range, subject to risks from geopolitical uncertainty, commodity prices, and weather-related disruption. Fiscal management is supported by public capital expenditure and robust direct-tax revenue.

Hughes Precision Manufacturing Pvt. Ltd. completed a Rs. 250+ crore investment round through primary and secondary investments. The capital will expand small-caliber ammunition capacity from approximately 80 million to 220 million rounds and establish a dedicated medium-caliber ammunition manufacturing facility. The expansion broadens its product portfolio and is supported by an order book exceeding Rs. 1,000 crore, including domestic defence and export orders scheduled for execution over approximately two years.

Each KRA must establish interoperable electronic connectivity with other IFSC KRAs and may connect with KRAs registered with other financial-sector regulators, while maintaining secure data-transmission links with Regulated Entities. It must store, safeguard and retrieve KYC documents, independently validate uploaded records, disseminate client updates to service-using intermediaries, maintain audit trails, and preserve data integrity, backups, controls and periodic system audits. Client data access must be limited to a Regulated Entity's own clients and subject to client consent, with compliance required under applicable data-protection law.

Transfer-pricing adjustments for accounting and BPO exports fail where comparables lack functional similarity, reliable financial data, or acceptable related-party transaction levels, and the resulting margins are lower than or within the statutory tolerance range of the taxpayer's margin. For MAT purposes, the section 10A reduction from book profit is determined from the eligible unit's profit under book-profit principles, rather than the deduction under normal computation provisions; corresponding additions are deleted. A business-expenditure disallowance under section 40(a)(ia) increases the eligible undertaking's profit, so the section 10A deduction extends to that enhanced profit.

Benami character under Section 2(9)(A) depends on the real relationship between the property holder, provider of consideration and intended beneficiary. Cash deposits routed through entities linked to an alleged benamidar and transferred by RTGS may support an inference of beneficial ownership when formal invoices, ledgers and tax records lack independent commercial corroboration. Bank funds and proceeds fall within the broad concept of property. Sworn statements, banking records and surrounding circumstances must be assessed together; the party alleging benami bears the initial burden, though evidentiary burdens may shift on proved facts.

Capacity-based duty, being unrelated to the quantity or value of finished goods or the use of inputs, displaced the input-output correlation underlying the MODVAT scheme. The related amendments rendered the accumulated MODVAT credit balance unavailable from 1 August 1997, including credit attributable to unused inputs, work-in-progress and capital goods. They effected a statutory lapse of the available balance only; they did not require a separate reversal or recovery of such credit. Treating lapsed balance credit as recoverable again would create double recovery without legal authority. Exemption-based reversal principles did not govern this statutory transition.

Wrong-head GST payment must be distinguished from a substantive error in classifying a supply as inter-State or intra-State. Sections 19 and 77 address supplies subsequently held to have a different character and do not automatically govern a mere allocation error where the supply classification and aggregate tax liability are undisputed. Where the full aggregate liability was remitted within time under an incorrect tax head, correction may occur through appropriation against the correct heads rather than a second payment followed by a refund claim.

Factoring business in an International Financial Services Centre requires registration, subject to statutory exemptions. Registration depends on prior Finance Company registration, relevant factoring experience, adequate infrastructure, fitness and propriety, financial soundness, and absence of judicial proceedings for breach of law. Trade receivables financed through a Trade Receivables Discounting System must be filed with the Central Registry within ten days of assignment or satisfaction, with limited additional time available for delayed filing on application and payment of the prescribed fee.

Section 107 requires a GST appeal within three months from communication of the order and permits condonation only for a further one-month period on sufficient cause. This is a statutory outer limit on the Appellate Authority, which cannot be enlarged through Section 5 of the Limitation Act. Communication through the portal, post or other recognised modes may require factual scrutiny where effective access to the complete order is disputed. Article 226 may exceptionally examine manifest injustice arising from defective communication, prompt action after knowledge, absence of merits adjudication and other credible circumstances, without enlarging the Appellate Authority's statutory jurisdiction.

Validity of a scrutiny notice under section 143(2) depends on statutory compliance, not merely on use of a prescribed administrative format. A notice remains effective where it is issued by a competent authority, timely served, identifies the taxpayer and assessment year, conveys scrutiny, and affords an opportunity to support the return. Section 292B may cure formal defects where the notice substantively conforms to the Act and no actual prejudice is established. This issue is distinct from the restriction that limited-scrutiny inquiries cannot be expanded without prescribed conversion safeguards.

Admission of a cheque signature activates the presumptions of consideration and legally enforceable debt or liability under Sections 118(a) and 139 of the Negotiable Instruments Act. The drawer then bears an evidentiary burden to raise a probable, evidence-based defence on the preponderance of probabilities; bare denials, unsupported claims of misuse, or a blank-cheque plea ordinarily do not rebut the presumptions. Financial capacity of the complainant becomes material only after a credible and specific challenge. These presumptions do not remove the requirement to establish the procedural ingredients of Section 138, including dishonour, timely demand notice, non-payment, and timely complaint.

Section 203(3) creates a statutory first charge on a building for unpaid property tax. Section 60 does not displace charges created under other enactments; therefore, a revenue-recovery auction sale does not extinguish property-tax arrears secured by that charge. The auction purchaser remains liable for accrued arrears and subsequent property-tax liability. Where the sale confirmation did not disclose the liability and the Panchayat did not intervene in the sale, interest on the arrears may be waived if payment is made by the stipulated date.

GST does not apply to donor-name displays by charitable organisations when they are merely expressions of gratitude or recognition of philanthropy, rather than advertising or business promotion. No supply of service for consideration arises where the recipient has no reciprocal obligation. The payment must be a genuine charitable gift or donation, made for philanthropic purposes without commercial gain, and the display must not refer to or promote the donor's business activity.

Usable steel-sheet off-cuts arising from processing Modvat-credit inputs retain the character of the parent material and do not qualify as waste and scrap. Rule 57F permits removal of inputs or waste arising during processing, but Chapter 72 confines waste and scrap to material fit only for metal recovery or chemical manufacture. Off-cuts capable of producing steel articles or smaller scooter parts fail that condition, notwithstanding their irregular shape. Their classification depends on examination of the consignment and its actual usability. Such off-cuts cannot be cleared at the duty applicable to waste and scrap.