Delayed furnishing of a statement of financial transactions may attract penalty, but belated filing alone does not exclude the statutory defence of reasonable cause. Penalty should not be sustained without examining the taxpayer's explanation and supporting evidence for the delay. Where the first appellate authority has dismissed the matter without deciding the grounds on merits or considering reasonable cause, it should provide due opportunity, examine that defence, and determine the penalty afresh in accordance with law.

The Finance Act, 2022 amendment to section 14A applies prospectively from assessment year 2022-23 and does not govern assessment year 2018-19. Disallowance of expenditure relating to exempt income under section 14A read with rule 8D cannot exceed the exempt income earned during the relevant year. Where the taxpayer's voluntary disallowance already equalled the exempt income, no additional disallowance was warranted. The deletion of the further disallowance was sustained and the Revenue's appeal was dismissed.

Interest paid on overdrafts secured against fixed deposits is deductible under section 57(iii) only where the taxpayer establishes a direct nexus between the borrowing cost and interest income taxable as income from other sources. Failure to prove the purpose for which overdraft funds were used, or their connection with the fixed-deposit interest income, prevents deduction of the interest expenditure. On the stated facts, the claimed interest expenditure was disallowed because the required nexus was not established.

Income arising from the sale of property gifted by a husband is ordinarily assessable in the husband's hands under the clubbing provisions. A belated clubbing claim may fail where the recipient spouse neither filed a return nor raised the claim in response to reassessment proceedings, but asserted it only after the limitation for reassessing the husband had expired. Where the husband also filed no return enabling assessment of that income, the delayed claim can be treated as an attempt to avoid assessment in either spouse's hands. Capital gains were consequently sustained in the recipient spouse's assessment.

Employee stock-option discount is revenue expenditure where the liability accrues during the vesting period, notwithstanding the absence of cash outflow. Royalty benchmarking requires satisfaction of both associated-enterprise conditions and prefers reliable internal comparable uncontrolled price transactions, supported by examination of contractual, functional and consistency factors. Trading, IT support and digital marketing comparables must match the tested party's functions; entities with materially different activities, significant intangibles, unavailable segmental data or exceptional circumstances are unsuitable. The other method may use gross margin as a profit level indicator where purchase-to-sale price comparison is justified, capacity-utilisation differences affect direct-cost recovery, and TNMM adjustment data is unavailable.

Interest-free own funds substantially exceeding an advance to a fellow subsidiary, where the advance predated interest-bearing debentures, negate any presumption that borrowed funds financed the advance; the related interest disallowance was deleted. Share-premium credits require an independent investor-wise examination of financial statements, bank records, available funds and transaction evidence to establish the statutory conditions for unexplained credits. Alternative Investment Fund status does not remove that verification requirement. A pre-amendment approach was inapplicable for AY 2023-24, and the share-premium issue was remitted for fresh adjudication after allowing an effective hearing.

Limited-scrutiny assessment confines the Assessing Officer's inquiry to issues selected for scrutiny unless the prescribed procedure converts it into complete scrutiny. Where scrutiny concerned high liabilities relative to income and agricultural income, loss on sale of assets lacked a nexus to those issues, and no conversion was shown. The deeming rule for inadequate inquiry or verification applies only to matters within the lawful assessment scope. Consequently, failure to examine the asset-sale loss did not render the assessment erroneous and prejudicial to Revenue; the revisional order was set aside and the assessment restored.

Loan advanced in the ordinary course of business may generate an allowable revenue loss when waived under a settlement, provided it formed part of the taxpayer's commercial activities and neither acquired a capital asset nor represented a long-term capital investment. Financial participation through a shareholder-financier arrangement, repayable from business surplus, can retain its business character. The waiver was treated as incidental to business, distinguishable from an advance made to acquire immovable property, and the deduction was allowed.

General insurance income computed under the special statutory scheme preserves statutory depreciation after book depreciation is withdrawn, consequential fixed-asset sale adjustments, and later deduction of expenditure once tax deduction and deposit conditions are met, preventing permanent double disallowance. Profit on sale of investments is excluded after omission of Rule 5 clause (b), while dividend exemption remains available and Section 14A adjustments not specified in Rule 5 do not apply. AMP spending alone does not establish an international transaction absent an arrangement with an associated enterprise. Co-insurance fees in a principal-to-principal relationship are not commission for tax withholding; hardware consumables without an independent capital asset are revenue expenditure.

Procedural and curative 2016 Benami amendments, including attachment, adjudication and appellate mechanisms, apply to transactions predating their enforcement, while newly created or enhanced penalties remain prospective, with a specific exception concerning confiscation proceedings. An unretracted sworn statement affirmed as voluntary may be relied upon where coercion is unsupported. A relative's registered title does not prevent benami characterisation where another person funded acquisition and loan repayments, exercised control and beneficial use, and evidence of independent funds or rent is unreliable. Recorded reasons to believe need not be supplied where the show-cause notice and provisional attachment set out the factual basis. The flat remained subject to confirmed provisional attachment as benami property.

Gold seizure requires a pre-existing, objectively sustainable reasonable belief that goods are liable to confiscation; a statutory burden to establish licit acquisition cannot retrospectively cure the absence of that foundation. Foreign origin and illicit importation require reliable evidence beyond concealment, missing documents at interception, or general smuggling intelligence; traceable stock, purchase, inheritance and melting records must be properly tested. A retracted customs statement cannot substantively establish smuggling without corroboration and applicable procedural safeguards, especially where investigative material contradicts it. Penalty requires independent proof of each person's conscious act or omission and the requisite knowledge or intent.

Re-import duty exemption for repairs or reconditioning requires the very re-imported goods to be re-exported after the work. Exporting freshly manufactured goods, even if similar in description or quality, does not meet that condition. Shipping documentation must identify exported goods as the re-imported goods after rework, enabling Customs to verify their identity. Because substituted goods were exported and the shipping bill did not establish identity, the exemption conditions remained unmet; the duty demand, confiscation and penalty were sustained and the appeal dismissed.

Interest on delayed IGST payment under the Advance Authorisation Scheme for the period preceding legislative amendment lacked a specific statutory basis. The applicable High Court view is to be followed under judicial discipline despite contrary Tribunal views and a pending Larger Bench reference. Interest paid without statutory authority is characterised as a deposit rather than duty. Accordingly, the two-year limitation applicable to duty-refund claims does not govern recovery of that deposit.

Regulation 7 requires project-import finalisation documents to be filed within three months from clearance of the last consignment, unless the proper officer allows additional time. An undisposed extension application may, in appropriate circumstances, permit the importer to proceed on the basis that the requested extension was granted, particularly where the required documents were filed before show-cause notices. Entitlement to nil-duty project-import treatment also requires proper consideration of the clearance date, the extension request, reconciliation documents, and any applicable Board circular relaxing plant-related requirements for public sector undertakings.

Disputed valuation-based shareholder buy-out directions were stayed on an interim basis after the Appellate Tribunal found prima facie concerns that the valuation report relied on earlier reports already challenged. It also regarded a direction permitting share transfer either at the valuer-determined price or a mutually agreed price as controversial because both alternatives could not operate together. Directions to remove a director and appoint the minority shareholder's nominee director were retained, reflecting the shareholder's exclusion from meaningful participation in management; however, their implementation was deferred until the next listing. The impugned order therefore remains stayed except for those limited board-representation directions.

Individual shop owners intervening in representative oppression and mismanagement proceedings cannot independently challenge a final order where their grievances must be pursued in a representative capacity and the order establishes a class-wide mechanism. An intervenor who does not use the permitted representative route, while failing to disclose the order disposing of the intervention request, lacks a continuing individual right to appeal. After hearings conclude and written submissions are filed, additional material is not receivable as of right because other parties must have an opportunity to respond. Substantial relief also cannot be sought through a later individual intervention in proceedings instituted by others. The individual appeal was dismissed as non-maintainable, with exemplary costs.

Former director liability for refunding funds raised through Redeemable Preference Shares continued despite resignation because the director served throughout the financial years in which the company issued the shares and collected investor funds. Final directions required the company and named directors to refund investors, permitted recovery upon non-compliance, and had been affirmed on appeal. Recovery proceedings and remittance of funds from the former director's attached bank accounts were therefore valid, and the writ petition was dismissed.

Inspection rights in regulatory adjudication extend to documents relied upon and forming part of the regulator's record, not blanket access to a bank's internal portal or electronic data outside that record. The prior rejection of inspection of non-record material had attained finality. Where the regulator confirmed it neither possessed nor would rely upon the requested data, and no specific documents were identified, unrestricted access risked disclosing confidential third-party information. The access direction was set aside, while the remaining directions continued.

Under the IBC clean slate principle, approval of a resolution plan extinguishes claims against the corporate debtor and successful resolution applicant, including claims not lodged in CIRP, but preserves the corporate debtor's claims against its debtors. A former promoter's status as successful resolution applicant under the MSME exception does not change that effect. The CIRP moratorium is excluded when computing limitation for an arbitral claim arising from contract termination after CIRP commencement. An extinguished operational creditor's claim cannot support affirmative recovery but may be used as a defensive set-off against amounts payable on the corporate debtor's surviving claim, limited to the claim lodged in CIRP.

Additional contractual compensation requires proof that work fell outside the agreed scope and that the parties agreed to pay separately for it. A comprehensive scope covering architectural, structural and building-services coordination, together with an augmentation purchase order that identified no distinct extra work, did not establish such entitlement. Unpaid milestone payments require proof of completion of the contractual deliverables triggering each payment stage. The consultant did not produce CAD files, finished or GFC drawings, or evidence of dispatch of complete multidisciplinary drawings; an unsupported list of drawings was insufficient. The recovery claim therefore lacked proof of both contractual entitlement and performance conditions.