Electronically authenticated GST show-cause notices, adjudication orders and DRC summaries uploaded on the common portal remain valid even where taxpayer-facing PDFs display no physical or digital signature. Registered digital signature certificates, immutable electronic records, hash values and officer-certificate mapping satisfy electronic-authentication requirements; form signature fields cannot add to the Rules. Portal uploads constitute valid service and begin limitation; after the portal expressly identified the Additional Notices and Orders tab, taxpayers cannot claim ignorance of communications uploaded there, while challenges concerning earlier uploads remain open. GST communications may bear either a DIN or an independently verifi.....

Section 63 assessment of a person liable to GST who failed to obtain registration must precede tax-recovery proceedings under section 74. The proper officer must issue notice and make a best-judgment assessment for the relevant period after providing an opportunity of hearing. An educational institution may raise its exemption claim in those assessment proceedings. A recovery show-cause notice issued without first initiating the section 63 process was quashed, while the Department retained liberty to issue notice in ASMT-14 and pursue assessment; the exemption claim and other contentions remained open.

Revised Customs prosecution thresholds for precious-metal smuggling may extend to pending complaints if the goods' value is below the updated limit. The later circular changes only the monetary threshold and preserves the earlier circular's other conditions. Neither circular prohibits consideration of withdrawal after prosecution sanction has issued; the Magistrate retains discretion under the earlier framework to decide whether the prosecution should continue. Where withdrawal was rejected solely because sanction had issued, reconsideration under the applicable circulars is required.

Regular bail in a commercial-quantity narcotics prosecution remained subject to the twin conditions under Section 37 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, despite prolonged incarceration. More than three and a half years of custody, minimal trial progress, first-time-offender status, and the absence of credible material linking the accused to the contraband beyond presence in a vehicle supported satisfaction of those conditions. The presumption of culpable mental state under Section 35 was rebuttable. Regular bail was granted.

International commercial arbitral awards are subject to limited public-policy review, and patent illegality is unavailable. Prior service by arbitrators in related specialised maritime proceedings does not itself create justifiable doubts about independence or impartiality without material indicating closed-mindedness, partiality, or lack of objective judgment. A known challenge to an arbitrator's appointment must be raised within the prescribed period or is waived. Clause 62, read with the agreement and its force-majeure mechanism, does not permit a charterer to terminate for its own failure to issue shipment nominations. Damages based on the contractual-versus-spot freight differential for affected tonnage, after mitigation notice, and interest are sustainable where they rationally measure contractual loss.

Section 311 of the Code of Criminal Procedure permits additional evidence at any stage where it is material and necessary for a just decision. The stage of proceedings, including closure of the complainant's evidence, does not itself prevent admission of relevant documents. An invoice and related payment records directly connected with a payment raised in the defence may be produced to clarify whether that payment concerned the liability in issue. Such production is distinguishable from filling a lacuna in the original case. The documents may be placed on record where the opposing party receives a full opportunity to challenge their admissibility, authenticity and evidentiary value.

Professional disciplinary proceedings for other misconduct may continue once a complaint has been filed and cannot be withdrawn. Pending proceedings remain governed by the pre-amendment legal framework. Judicial intervention under Article 226 is limited, while removal from the Register of Members may serve as a disciplinary sanction. Review requires grounds warranting reconsideration; where no such grounds are established, the review petition is dismissed.

Accepted self-assessed quarterly VAT returns require refund of excess tax after adjustment of outstanding dues under the Delhi Value Added Tax Act, 2004. Where no default assessment, audit, or other applicable statutory proceeding has begun and no outstanding demand exists, the unadjusted refund remains payable; reassessment provisions do not govern the refund application. Allegations that transactions are paper transactions do not by themselves permit rejection under the anti-avoidance provision. That provision requires an identified arrangement intended to defeat the Act, supported by inquiry or investigation and declared void. Accordingly, unsubstantiated collusion allegations cannot justify withholding the statutory refund.

Section 26E of the SARFAESI Act gives first priority to a secured creditor's dues where the security interest is registered with CERSAI. A bank's registered security interest therefore prevails over revenue dues supported only by an unregistered CGST charge. A provisional attachment under the CGST Act does not displace that statutory priority. Consequently, a restraint on issuing no-objection certificates for secured flats cannot stand where it impedes the registered secured creditor's rights.

Penalty under Rule 26 of the Central Excise Rules, 2002 requires that the goods be liable to confiscation and that the person knew or had reason to believe this. Rule 25 requires consideration of the goods' confiscability. Where a show-cause notice neither proposes confiscation nor establishes that the goods were liable to confiscation, and no such finding is recorded, the statutory conditions for a Rule 26 penalty are not satisfied. The penalty is therefore unsustainable and must be set aside.

Specific nil-rate excise exemptions for Bhujia, namkeen and similar ready-for-consumption preparations apply to Bhujia and Cheese Balls even when sold in sealed retail packages. Residual entries for packaged ready-to-eat foods, including entries limited to goods not cleared in sealed containers, apply only where the goods do not meet the specific exemption description. A sealed-container restriction stated in a separate residual entry cannot be read into the specific exemption. Tariff Item 2106 90 99 remains within parent Tariff Sub-heading 2106 90; classification at the eight-digit level therefore does not exclude qualifying goods from an exemption referring to that sub-heading.

Construction intended for sale falls outside the declared-service category where the entire consideration is received after the competent authority issues a completion certificate. Accordingly, receipts obtained after the occupancy certificate are not liable to Service Tax. Proceedings based on a show-cause notice served after expiry of the applicable limitation period are unsustainable, so a Service Tax demand founded on post-completion receipts and a time-barred notice cannot be sustained.

Collection of service tax from recipients requires immediate deposit under the Finance Act, 1994. Non-deposit of collected tax, coupled with non-disclosure in balance sheets and failure to file statutory returns, constitutes suppression of facts and intentional evasion for invoking the extended limitation period under the proviso to section 73(1). A confirmed service-tax demand attracts statutory interest under section 75. Failure to pay collected tax may attract penalty under section 77, while suppression of facts justifies penalty under section 78. Liability for collected, undisclosed and unpaid service tax remains enforceable with consequential interest and penalties.

Failure to track an amendment withdrawing or limiting an exemption notification does not excuse non-payment of service tax. A registered service provider claiming an exemption must monitor changes affecting eligibility. The extended period under the proviso to section 73(1) applies where taxable services remain unpaid after available exemption and abatement are allowed. For the post-amendment period, reasonable-cause protection under section 80 is unavailable, and section 78 requires an equal penalty. Surviving service-tax liability, interest and penalty remain enforceable.

Fund allocations transmitted through NEC for governmental activities, without a service provider-recipient relationship, do not constitute consideration for taxable services. Statutory and sovereign functions performed by public authorities, where prescribed collections are remitted to Government and no amount is retained, fall outside service-tax liability; this principle applied to work performed for NTPC where the invoiced service tax was not paid. Extended limitation requires suppression of facts: a bona fide belief concerning sovereign functions, governmental grants forming the principal demand, and non-collection of tax do not establish suppression. Service-tax demands consequently failed on merits and, for the extended period, on limitation.

Measured-work civil contracts performed through a contractor's own workers, with payment tied to quantities completed rather than workers or man-days, constitute works execution rather than Manpower Supply Service for reverse-charge service-tax purposes. Service-tax liability on that classification is therefore unsustainable. Where transactions are recorded in the taxpayer's books and reverse-charge tax would be creditable as CENVAT credit for dutiable manufacturing, revenue neutrality and disclosed records do not support suppression of facts. The extended limitation period is consequently unavailable, rendering a demand raised solely through that period time-barred.

Corporate liability under the Prevention of Money-laundering Act requires material linking the company itself to the alleged activity; directors' personal land transactions are not attributable solely because of their office. The High Court found that further consideration was required on whether the necessary evidentiary connection existed, issued notice, and stayed the impugned order and consequential proceedings against the petitioner pending the next hearing. No final adjudication occurred.

Foreign-exchange contraventions may be determined independently of Customs valuation and duty proceedings because the two regimes address different legal requirements. Under the statutory presumption for seized documents, electronic records supported by invoices, packing lists, banking entries and a Section 108 Customs Act statement can establish FEMA contraventions on a preponderance of probabilities where no tampering or rebuttal is shown. Liability must remain limited to documented and corroborated transactions; projections or extrapolations without independent supporting evidence cannot sustain further contraventions. Individuals responsible for a company's business may be liable for the proved contraventions.

FERA contraventions involving prohibited payments or dealings attract civil penalties once the statutory breach is established; guilty intention, personal gain, and compensation from the transaction are not prerequisites to liability. Penalty quantum is subject to limited proportionality review. Interference is warranted only where the penalty is grossly excessive, unduly harsh, or so disproportionate that it shocks the conscience. Section 50 permits penalties up to five times the value of the contravention, requiring a legally sustainable basis before a penalty is reduced as irrational or outrageous.

Interim suspension of an insolvency professional's registration remains effective pending final appeal where contested regulatory issues require full-record examination and no strong prima facie case, favourable balance of convenience, or irreparable injury is shown. Registration is the statutory basis for acting in every insolvency assignment; its suspension therefore removes eligibility to continue in other ongoing processes, not merely the assignment involving alleged misconduct. Mandatory communication of the suspension to Committees of Creditors and the Adjudicating Authority gives operational effect to that status. Such communication does not replace the Committee of Creditors' separate commercial authority to appoint a replacement resolution professional.