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Section 60(5) jurisdiction extends to a Liquidator's recovery of unpaid business-purchase consideration where the amount is a receivable of the liquidation estate and its recovery directly augments assets available to creditors. A contractual provision envisaging payment from income generated by the acquired business governs the payment mechanism but does not extinguish the purchaser's primary payment obligation. Controlling directors who acquired and exercised effective managerial, financial and operational control through the purchaser-company cannot rely on privity or separate corporate personality to avoid liability arising from their own acts. Recovery, with interest, was confined to the purchaser-company and the three controlling directors against whom relief was sought.
Section 19 of the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act permits arrest only where the authorised officer records reasons to believe, based on material, that the person is guilty, and compliance is subject to judicial review. After the enforcement authority used section 50 summons powers to examine a cooperating person on existing material and obtained no fresh incriminating material, it could not resort to arrest on that same material without a supervening circumstance making arrest imperative. The High Court treated such recourse as a colourable exercise of power, held the arrest non-compliant with section 19, quashed the remand orders, and directed immediate release.
Supply of relied-upon documents in PMLA complaint proceedings engages the trial court's fair-trial obligation to provide complaint materials to the accused. Whether the best available copies were furnished or documents are unavailable remains for determination on the trial-court record; inherent jurisdiction should not pre-empt that factual determination absent patent illegality or lack of jurisdiction. Observations made to secure compliance with document-supply timelines do not determine the integrity of the investigating agency or officer and should not affect other proceedings. Investigating Officer attendance may be required when necessary, including through video-conferencing, but not automatically on every hearing date; each direction should specify its purpose.
Under PMLA, the discretionary and drastic arrest power requires observance of statutory safeguards. Where the investigating authority obtains permission to examine an accused on existing material but abandons that examination, arrest on the same material requires strong fresh incriminating material or supervening circumstances warranting immediate action. Omission of the earlier examination order from the arrest application, coupled with failure to address the objection at remand, supports judicial review and may indicate a colourable exercise of power. On the stated facts, the arrest was treated as unsustainable; remand orders were set aside and bail granted subject to conditions, without affecting trial merits.
Unsubstantiated advertising receipts retained after identifiable advertising expenditure, where no agreement or supporting material establishes the claimed commission, may be treated as proceeds of crime in the recipient's possession when the statutory burden is not discharged. Property of equivalent value may be provisionally attached where directly or indirectly derived criminal property is unavailable because it has vanished or been laundered. Immovable property so attached represents the value of unavailable proceeds, rather than direct proceeds of crime.
VCES eligibility is assessed as at the prescribed date; an investigation initiated later does not retrospectively disqualify a declarant. A higher tax computation based on contracts, accounts, returns and tax records does not, without identified material discrepancies, establish a substantially false declaration where receipts raise disputes over taxability, classification, valuation or taxes paid by principal contractors. The statutory deeming rule invokes recovery machinery but does not alter the return-based relevant date or restart limitation. Extended recovery requires deliberate suppression with intent to evade; reconstruction from disclosed records and legal characterisation disputes does not meet that standard. VCES payments remain non-refundable under the statutory bar.
Admitted execution and delivery of settlement cheques trigger presumptions of consideration and legally enforceable debt; a security-cheque defence must provide a probable basis to displace them. Completion of particulars in a voluntarily delivered signed cheque differs from material alteration, which requires proof of an unauthorised change to an existing entry; a collecting-bank endorsement alone does not establish alteration. Additional defence evidence on appeal is not an unrestricted entitlement and may be refused when belated, unproved, or unnecessary. Compensation should realistically reflect the cheque amount and deprivation of payment. The conviction, compensation and default sentence remained, while substantive imprisonment was reduced to six months based on individual circumstances and deposits.
Statutory auditor liability for money laundering requires material showing knowledge, participation and nexus with proceeds of crime.
Statutory auditors face a prima facie money-laundering charge only where the record establishes a nexus between their conduct and the offence, rather than mere suspicion or assumed lack of diligence. Material must link the auditor to proceeds of crime or to the placement, layering, or integration of illicit funds, and support knowledge of and participation in the relevant transactions. An audit engagement commencing after the alleged generation of illicit proceeds, or a financial-statement note signed by management rather than included in the audit report, does not by itself establish such involvement. Absent that material, no prima facie money-laundering offence arises.
Regular Bail in Murder Prosecutions May Be Denied Despite Co-Accused Bail Where Specific Overt Acts Are Alleged
Regular bail in a murder prosecution was not warranted where eyewitness material attributed a specific overt act to the applicant. Bail granted to a co-accused did not establish parity because that co-accused was not attributed any specific overt act. Prolonged incarceration and the absence of misuse of earlier temporary bail did not outweigh the gravity of the accusation and the applicant's alleged individual role in the offence.
Regular bail cannot be denied solely because a co-accused absconds when prolonged incarceration and delayed charge-framing favour release.
Regular bail cannot be refused solely because a co-accused absconded. Entitlement must be assessed on the applicant's own circumstances, including parity where most co-accused have bail, surrender after Covid-period bail, more than five years of actual incarceration, and failure to frame charges. These factors supported grant of regular bail notwithstanding the absent co-accused and non-commencement of trial.
Computer reservation system services using airline-owned data fall outside OIDAR taxation under reverse charge where supplied by foreign providers.
Computer reservation system services supplied by foreign reservation companies do not constitute online information and database access or retrieval services where the underlying data or information belongs to the airline receiving the service. Under the Finance Act, 1994 and the reverse-charge framework in the Service Tax Rules, 2002, tax liability for OIDAR services does not arise in such circumstances. Computer reservation system agreements involving airline-owned data therefore fall outside the taxable OIDAR category.
Need-to-arrest test and writ maintainability frame an arrest challenge, with pleadings directed before further hearing.
The challenge to the arrest order raises whether the need-to-arrest test was satisfied and whether a writ petition challenging the arrest is maintainable. Both parties rely on the same judicial precedent but advance differing interpretations: the petitioner invokes it for the need-to-arrest requirement, while the respondent relies on it regarding writ maintainability. Detailed arguments were deferred, with directions for concise written synopses and a counter-affidavit before further hearing.
Customised Wi-Fi receiver enclosures qualify as receiver parts, while confidentiality requires a specific commercially sensitive basis.
Customised die-cast aluminium enclosures designed solely for Wi-Fi receivers are classified as parts of heading 8517 rather than aluminium articles or parts of general use. Under Rule 1 of the General Rules for Interpretation and Section XVI Note 2(b), classification turns on dedicated use and indispensable functions, including structural integrity, electromagnetic shielding, heat dissipation and environmental protection. The applicable tariff treatment is Customs Tariff Item 8517 79 90. Confidential treatment requires a substantiated basis that proprietary technical or commercially sensitive information warrants protection. Where product details are publicly available and no specific sensitive material is identified, confidentiality is unavailable.
Customs classification of fibre-optic transmitters raises tariff, exemption, limitation, confiscation and penalty questions awaiting determination.
Classification of imported fibre-optic transmitters, receivers and transceivers is in issue between CTH 85176290 and CTH 854230. Related questions concern eligibility for the exemption at Serial No. 20 of Notification No. 57/2017, the extended limitation period, confiscation and penalties. Notice has been issued, and assistance has been sought from the Additional Solicitor General on the legal questions. No final determination on classification, exemption, limitation, confiscation or penalties is recorded.
Under-reporting penalties do not arise from bona fide deduction claims based on disclosed income and mathematical profit allocation.
Penalty for under-reporting of income is not attracted where a co-operative society maintains books, fully discloses income particulars, and makes a bona fide deduction claim. Disallowance based solely on the tax officer's view that profits from non-PDS trading and miscellaneous income are ineligible, particularly where profit allocation is mathematical, does not establish under-reporting. Failure to account for an otherwise available statutory deduction further supports the absence of under-reporting.
Depreciation claims by unregistered charitable institutions may remain bona fide when withdrawn and taxed after registration, avoiding reporting penalties.
Depreciation claimed by a charitable institution before obtaining charitable-registration status was assessed on commercial principles and was bona fide when the return was filed. Section 11(6) disallows depreciation where the capital asset's cost has already been treated as application of income by a registered charitable institution. After registration was granted, withdrawal of the depreciation claim and offering of the amount to tax did not indicate a deliberate attempt to under-report or misreport income. Penalty for under-reporting or misreporting was therefore unsustainable on these facts.
Presumptive taxation allows business cash deposits to be treated as sales where declared turnover supports the explanation.
Cash deposits credited to a business taxpayer's bank account may be accepted as sales proceeds under presumptive taxation where the taxpayer has consistently carried on the stated business, no other income source is identified, and deposits are below declared turnover. Section 44AD does not require maintenance of books of account; their absence therefore does not by itself displace that explanation. On these facts, the deposits were treated as business sales, deleting the unexplained-income addition and accepting returned income.
Related-party expenditure disallowance requires market-value evidence, while ad hoc business-expense disallowance requires identified defects or non-business use.
Related-party expenditure may be disallowed only to the extent it exceeds the fair market value of goods, services or facilities obtained. Where no evidence establishes that interest payments or related-party purchase prices exceeded prevailing market rates, disallowance is unsustainable; the interest and purchase disallowances were deleted. Percentage-based disallowance of miscellaneous business expenses also requires identified defects in supporting records or a finding that expenditure lacked business purpose. Without either basis, the ad hoc expense disallowance was deleted.
Form 9A Filing Timing: Delayed Upload Does Not Defeat Charitable Trust Exemption When Return Is Timely Filed
Section 11 exemption remains available where a return is filed within the prescribed due date and Form 9A is uploaded the following day. The timing requirement for Form 9A is directory rather than mandatory, so a one-day upload delay alone does not defeat the exemption claim. The claim remains subject to verification and recomputation of income in accordance with law.
Genuine trade advances remain outside deemed dividend when ledgers and invoices establish commercial character despite balance-sheet classification.
Corroborative installation certificates, transport and invoice records, electricity bills, and sales invoices can establish that machinery was installed and put to use, supporting depreciation and additional depreciation despite the absence of machinery log books. Genuine trade advances evidenced by ledger accounts and commercial invoices fall outside deemed-dividend treatment, even where recorded under unsecured loans and advances. Accounting classification does not override the transaction's actual commercial character. On the stated facts, depreciation and additional depreciation remained allowable, and the deemed-dividend addition was deleted.