Disciplinary proceedings for other misconduct may continue after a complaint has been filed and are not rendered withdrawable by a later request to withdraw it. Pending disciplinary matters are governed by the pre-amendment legal framework where applicable. Constitutional writ review of disciplinary action remains limited, restricting judicial interference with findings or punishment except within the permitted scope of review. Removal from the Register of Members may be imposed as a disciplinary sanction for established misconduct.

Clubbing of clearances, lifting of the corporate veil, pervasive financial and management control, SSI-exemption aggregation, suppression of material facts, and the extended limitation period were the legal issues identified. The Supreme Court dismissed the appeals for want of any ground to interfere with the Tribunal's impugned order, leaving that order undisturbed on all listed issues.

Condonation of a 451-day delay in filing an appeal requires a substantiated sufficient cause. Inability to obtain legal advice lacked credibility where a legal notice had been issued shortly after the impugned order. Compliance with a public-notice direction and belief that the matter was concluded indicated acceptance of that order. Unsupported illness claims and a belated request to produce evidence did not establish grounds for condonation.

Corporate guarantees provided to associated enterprises may constitute international transactions, with an arm's-length commission of 0.5% of the guarantee value. Where own funds exceed exempt-income investments, no interest disallowance arises under Rule 8D; administrative disallowance is confined to investments that yielded exempt income, net of voluntary disallowance. Full weighted R&D deduction is available for book-recorded expenditure at an approved in-house facility before Rule 6(7A) introduced expenditure quantification. Forward-contract losses require verification of whether underlying foreign-currency borrowing is on revenue or capital account. Unavailed additional depreciation remains available in the succeeding year. Depreciation and unexplained-money additions based on alleged inflated contract payments depend on coordinated determination of prior-year cash-repayment issues.

Estimated project-profit additions require rejection of regularly maintained accounts or cogent evidence that declared results are unreliable. An ad hoc estimate based on land, construction and overhead costs, comparison with a materially different project, and unsupported site enquiries could not displace audited accounts where no discrepancy was established under Section 145. Differences in project location, duration and treatment of partners' interest also made the profitability comparison unreliable. The reconciled cash-book discrepancy and unrecorded site enquiries provided no evidentiary basis for estimation; deletion of the addition was therefore upheld.

Rejection of books permits reasonable estimation of business income from turnover; where comparable preceding-year facts support it, a 5% net-profit rate applies rather than 3% or 20%. Unrecorded flat sales and admitted cash or on-money receipts form part of turnover and are taxable only at that rate, not in full. Separate additions for bank deposits representing turnover, and expenditure disallowance based on entries in rejected books, duplicate estimated income and are precluded. A stamp-duty valuation addition remains sustainable where limited below-value sales, comparable transactions and no valuation request do not justify a reference to the Valuation Officer.

Section 153D requires prior, independent approval for each assessment year as a mandatory safeguard in search-related assessments. Composite approval covering multiple years may fail that requirement where it is granted after draft orders are submitted, contains errors concerning returns or returned income, and directs verification of core assessment and tax-computation matters after approval. Such features indicate that the approving authority did not complete an independent review before granting approval, rendering the approval vulnerable as mechanical.

Pecuniary jurisdiction under CBDT Instruction No. 1/2011 determines whether an Income Tax Officer or Assistant Commissioner may issue a Section 143(2) scrutiny notice, based on returned income. Where returned income places an assessee within Income Tax Officer jurisdiction, a notice issued by an Assistant Commissioner lacks lawful pecuniary authority. Section 124(3), being confined to territorial-jurisdiction objections, does not cure that defect. A valid scrutiny notice from the competent authority is indispensable to assessment validity; a notice issued without such authority renders the assessment void ab initio.

Foreign tax credit under Sections 90 and 90A cannot be denied solely because Form 67 was filed after the prescribed due date where the form was subsequently furnished. Filing Form 67 was treated as a directory, rather than mandatory, procedural requirement for claiming credit, with judicial consistency applied to the same assessee's succeeding assessment year. The foreign tax credit claim remains allowable subject to verification of relevant facts for consequential computation.

Delayed furnishing of Form 10B does not by itself defeat exemption under section 11 where the audit report was available to the CPC before return processing under section 143(1). The prescribed filing timeline is procedural and directory, and availability of the report before processing constitutes substantial compliance. Rejection of a delay-condonation request under section 119(2)(b) does not extinguish the appellate remedy for the exemption claim.

Section 68 could not treat consideration received on the sale of unlisted shares as unexplained cash credit where the original investments had been accepted in prior scrutiny assessments. Purchase and sale records, books of account, bank statements, confirmations, tax returns, audited financial statements, and purchaser particulars supported the transactions. The purchasers also responded to enquiries with supporting material. In the absence of defects in that evidence or independent material disproving purchaser identity, creditworthiness, or transaction genuineness, the documented share-sale proceeds remained outside unexplained cash-credit treatment.

Furnishing the audit report in Form No. 10B within the Section 139(1) deadline is treated as a procedural and directory requirement for claiming charitable exemption under Section 11. Delayed filing does not automatically invalidate an otherwise valid exemption claim. The availability of condonation of delay under Section 119(2)(b) does not preclude appellate consideration of the exemption claim where Form No. 10B was filed late.

Section 148 reassessment notices must be issued by an officer having pecuniary jurisdiction under the applicable CBDT allocation instruction. For non-corporate assessees in mofussil areas whose returned income exceeds the prescribed threshold, jurisdiction lies with an Assistant Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner rather than an Income-tax Officer. Issuance of a reassessment notice by an Income-tax Officer lacking that inherent jurisdiction renders the notice invalid. The reassessment proceedings and consequential assessment founded on that notice are void ab initio and cannot be sustained.

Section 115JB of the Income-tax Act, 1961, which governs minimum alternate tax, does not apply to banking companies regulated under the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. Precedent had resolved the applicability issue against the Revenue. Pending related matters before the Supreme Court do not alter the position that banking companies governed by the Banking Regulation Act fall outside Section 115JB.

Personal hearing at the original adjudication stage is necessary in proceedings concerning unpaid or short-paid tax, erroneous refunds, or improper input-tax availment where the taxpayer must produce books of account and explain relevant issues. Fixing only a date for a written reply does not provide that meaningful opportunity. Failure to afford a personal hearing at the original stage vitiates the proceedings, and an appellate opportunity cannot cure the defect where the appellate order does not adequately address it.

Ex parte demand orders under Section 73(9) may be set aside where bona fide and unavoidable circumstances prevented the noticee from replying to a show-cause notice and submitting supporting documents. A justice-oriented approach requires a reasonable opportunity to respond and participate in adjudication. The demand order was set aside, and fresh adjudication was directed after permitting submission of a reply and supporting documents.

The identified CGST issues concern whether a consolidated show cause notice may cover multiple financial years, the limitation period under section 74(10), issuance of notices under section 74(1), separate year-wise adjudication, and quasi-judicial fairness in taxation. Notice was issued on an application for condonation of delay and on a Special Leave Petition, with dasti service permitted. The listed GST issues remain without a stated substantive determination on limitation, validity of a consolidated notice, or the required adjudication process.

Pecuniary jurisdiction limits under the applicable CBDT instruction required reassessment of a non-corporate assessee in a mofussil area exceeding the prescribed limit to be handled by an Assistant or Deputy Commissioner, rather than an Income-tax Officer. As the reassessment notice was issued by an officer lacking that jurisdiction and the defect was unrebutted, the notice was inherently invalid. The consequential assessment was quashed as void ab initio, rendering the remaining grounds academic.

ISIN limits for privately placed debt securities are revised to permit up to seventeen ISINs maturing in a financial year, with additional ISINs for eligible capital gains tax debt securities. Twelve ISINs are available for plain vanilla debt securities, subject to further ISINs after prescribed outstanding-amount thresholds, and five are available for specified structured and debt-capital instruments. Legacy ISINs in those categories are grandfathered subject to restrictions on new issuance. Government serviced, extra-budgetary resources and ESG debt securities are excluded from ISIN-limit calculations.

Credit Risk-o-Meter disclosure is mandatory for specified listed and proposed-to-be-listed debt securities in offering documents, advertisements, and Online Bond Platform Provider web and mobile interfaces. The meter must map credit ratings to six colour-coded risk levels, display the lowest rating where multiple ratings exist, and identify the rating agency, actual rating, and unsecured status where applicable. OBPPs must use registered credit-rating agency data, automate rating-change updates, prohibit manual overrides, retain audit trails, and prominently display the meter before investment action buttons.