GST on rental income from hotel accommodation hired by the Department of Home requires the affected hotel operators to obtain GST registration and deposit the applicable tax. GST must be paid by the Department of Home in addition to the agreed rental amount, rather than being treated as part of the rent payable for the accommodation. This treatment follows the approach applied to comparable hotel-accommodation rental arrangements involving the Department of Home.

Provisional reversal of input tax credit in Table 4(B)(2) of GSTR-3B, unlike reporting output-tax liability in Table 3.1, does not by itself constitute self-assessed GST liability. The entry's statutory character depends on its nature, applicable provisions and contemporaneous material. Where the reversal was described as provisional and no liability had been determined or admitted, a pending stock-shortage investigation could not establish liability or justify retention of GST. A later demand under separate appeal could not retrospectively validate refund rejection. Refund eligibility remained subject to verification of applicable statutory conditions, and rejection could not rest solely on voluntary reversal or a pending investigation.

Reassessment after the applicable three-year period requires sanction from the authority specified by the law governing the elapsed period. Time-exclusion and adjustment provisos to the reassessment limitation provision did not alter the relevant period under clause (a), and the later proviso to section 151 changed a substantive jurisdictional safeguard prospectively rather than validating prior defective approval. Sanction by the Principal Commissioner where approval by the higher specified authority was required rendered the reassessment notice and order jurisdictionally invalid. Third-party survey material, including loose papers and statements, could not support reassessment without a prima facie live link to the taxpayer or alleged escaped income; the notice and order were quashed.

Section 250(6A) reflects a legislative expectation that income-tax first appeals should ordinarily be heard and decided within one year from the end of the relevant financial year. The qualification "where it is possible" does not permit prolonged pendency that defeats this objective. An appeal remaining undecided beyond that period constitutes genuine hardship within the CBDT guidelines. Expeditious disposal of the pending first appeal was directed within three months.

Sales receipts duly recorded in the books, supported by sales details and profit disclosures, and accepted as income cannot also be treated as unexplained cash credits. The Tribunal's undisputed factual finding on those matters supported deletion of the cash-credit addition. As the alleged commission expenditure addition was consequential to that unsustainable cash-credit addition, it lacked an independent basis. The High Court found no substantial question of law and dismissed the revenue's appeal.

Revision of an assessment as erroneous and prejudicial to Revenue cannot rest solely on the assessment order's failure to record reasons for accepting explanations. Where the Assessing Officer considered written submissions on unutilised CENVAT credit, excise-duty refund and additional depreciation on windmills, acceptance of those explanations does not make the assessment erroneous or prejudicial. The revisional order was annulled and the Revenue's appeal dismissed.

Rectification jurisdiction under section 254(2) is limited to correcting mistakes apparent from the record and does not permit reconsideration of merits or review of an earlier order. The Tribunal rejected the rectification application on distributor confirmations and cash-receipt patterns that were neither raised in the application nor relied upon in the original remand order. That rejection exceeded the statutory scope of rectification. The rejection order was quashed, and the matters were remanded to the Tribunal for fresh adjudication in accordance with law and principles of natural justice.

Charitable registration under section 12AB depends on the trust's objects viewed as a whole. Objects concerning members' interests and welfare did not, when read with the principal objects, establish that a real estate development society existed merely to protect members' business interests. The objects were directed to the benefit of the public at large rather than religious activity. Registration could not be denied solely on those grounds; de novo consideration was sustained and the Revenue's appeal was dismissed.

Searches conducted before 1 April 2021 require assessment or reassessment through the search-assessment framework under sections 153A/153C. Incriminating material found in such a search cannot subsequently support reassessment jurisdiction under sections 147/148 or proceedings under section 148A. Those reassessment provisions remain available only where information is independently obtained after the search and statutory conditions are met. Reassessment notices and orders founded solely on pre-1 April 2021 search material are therefore without jurisdiction and liable to be quashed.

Condonation of delay in filing a first income-tax appeal requires a bona fide, reasonable explanation supported by material; inaction, negligence and lack of diligence defeat sufficient cause. Counsel's asserted illness, particularly after resuming work, remained unsubstantiated, while the assessee's non-cooperation during assessment supported the finding that counsel was not solely responsible for the delay. Concurrent factual findings refusing condonation were not perverse and could not be reappreciated where no substantial question of law arose. The delayed appeal was therefore not entertained and was dismissed.

Tax-evasion prosecution founded solely on an assessment order lacks a subsisting basis once that order is set aside for fresh assessment. Where the complaint rests on the annulled assessment, the prosecution cannot be sustained. The resulting legal consequence is that the complaint, convictions and sentences are set aside, and the accused are acquitted. The principle applies where the assessment order forms the foundation of the criminal proceedings.

Cash advances received towards the transfer of immovable property constitute specified sums and must comply with the prescribed mode of receipt, even where they are not final sale consideration. Penalty for a cash receipt may nevertheless be avoided where reasonable cause is established under section 273B. A genuine and completed property transaction, confirmations from concerned parties, outstanding housing-loan liability, financial exigency necessitating the sale, and absence of evidence of fictitious dealings or introduction of undisclosed money may collectively demonstrate bona fide reasonable cause. On these facts, the penalty under section 271D was deleted despite the technical contravention.

TNMM benchmarking of IT services may segment associated-enterprise and non-associated-enterprise transactions where different risk profiles make a blended margin distort the international transaction margin. Transfer-pricing adjustments should be confined to associated-enterprise transactions rather than entity-level results that include domestic or non-associated-enterprise dealings. Comparable selection for IT services should apply an upper turnover filter because turnover affects assets, risks and operating margins. Interest disallowance is unwarranted where own funds exceed investments. Indirect expenditure calculations should include only investments yielding exempt income, excluding investments incapable of generating it.

Road construction services are classified under heading 9954. Consideration for construction may be paid partly upfront and partly through deferred annual instalments described as annuities. Entry 23A does not extend to road construction services because it is restricted to heading 9967; consequently, deferred annuity payments forming consideration for construction of roads are not exempt from GST.

Arm's length price determination under TNMM permits exclusion of comparables initially selected by either party where Rule 10B comparability requirements are not met; initial selection creates no estoppel. Related-party transaction filters may exclude companies whose profitability is materially influenced by controlled dealings, including transactions affecting operating costs rather than only revenue. Contact-centre service benchmarking also requires exclusion where financial results are abnormal, outsourcing models materially differ, segmental profitability is unreliable, or diversified, branded, or higher-end service operations lack reliable segmental data. Material profitability differences must be reliably adjusted; otherwise, the company cannot remain an uncontrolled comparable.

Penalty for an alleged failure to furnish transfer-pricing documentation relating to purchases from an alleged associated enterprise was deleted after the underlying transfer-pricing adjustment was removed. The penalty's foundation consequently ceased to exist. Applying an earlier Tribunal decision on identical facts and the principle of consistency, the deletion was sustained and the Revenue's challenge was dismissed. The taxpayer's cross-objection was dismissed as infructuous.

Compulsorily convertible debentures that require interest payments, confer no pre-conversion voting rights and preserve a debtor-creditor relationship cannot be treated as equity solely because conversion is mandatory. Accordingly, nil arm's-length pricing of interest and the related disallowance were unsustainable without applying the prescribed transfer-pricing framework. Additional evidence on actual services, cost allocation and benchmarking required fresh determination of the business-support-services adjustment. An employment-related deduction claim supported by a revised computation and Form No. 10DA also required factual and statutory examination. A challenge to penalty initiation was premature because no penalty had crystallised.

Internal TNMM may benchmark international freight-forwarding transactions where associated-enterprise and non-associated-enterprise segments are substantively comparable. Enterprise-level losses, the share of associated-enterprise revenue, differing agreements, and unquantified air-sea shipment mix differences do not establish a material profitability difference where the uncontrolled segment is substantial, separately identifiable, and performs the same broad activity. The controlled segment's better performance supported satisfaction of the arm's length test and deletion of the transfer pricing adjustment. External TNMM margins cannot be applied entity-wide to include uncontrolled transactions. A challenge to penalty initiation at the assessment stage remains premature.

Consideration for cloud application and IT support services did not constitute royalty under the India-Netherlands treaty because the services neither provided equipment nor conferred a right to use equipment. The receipts also failed to qualify as fees for technical services because they did not make available technical knowledge, experience, skill, know-how or processes enabling the Indian recipients to apply them independently. Interest on the income-tax refund required verification of the alleged double taxation and refund computation, so the tax liability or refund was remitted for fresh computation after a hearing. The challenge to penalty initiation was premature.

Orders refusing rectification of return-processing adjustments are separately appealable, and limitation for the first appeal runs from service of the rectification order or its intimation, not from an earlier processing intimation. A contingent-liability disclosure does not itself establish a deduction claim. Where tax audit records, financial statements and the processing intimation show that a disputed tax demand was neither charged to profit and loss nor claimed as a deduction, disallowing it increases income for an unclaimed amount and constitutes a mistake apparent from the record. The delay finding was set aside, the appeal was admitted, and the adjustment was directed to be deleted through rectification.