THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE R. MAHADEVAN AND THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE MOHAMMED SHAFFIQ For the Appellants : Mrs. Hema Muralikrishnan (in all cases) For the Respondents : Mr. R. Sivaraman for R1 (in all cases) COMMON JUDGMENT [Judgment of the Court was delivered by R.MAHADEVAN,J.] These writ appeal arise from the common order dated 01.02.2013 passed by the learned single judge in W.P. Nos. 22913 to 22915 and 24101 of 2012, in and by which, the Tax Recovery Officer was directed to ... ... ...

Section 79A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 is exercised by the Central Government to designate Regional Forensic Science Laboratory, Kannur, Kerala, as an Examiner of Electronic Evidence within India. The laboratory is authorised to undertake electronic-evidence examination only within its expressly specified forensic scope. That scope comprises computer (media) forensics and mobile devices forensics.

Regulatory applicability extends to every Vault Manager undertaking, or intending to undertake, storage of bullion underlying bullion-related instruments. Existing and proposed bullion-storage activity within that framework falls within the regulatory scope. Regulation 2A takes effect on the ninetieth day from publication.

Low tax effect resulted in the Supreme Court declining to entertain the appeal. The question of law, if any, remained open for adjudication in an appropriate case. The disposition rests solely on the low tax effect and does not determine the underlying legal issue on its merits, preserving that issue for future consideration.

The power bank exclusion from concessional Basic Customs Duty applies only to lithium-ion battery devices with charging and discharging ports designed to externally charge cellular mobile phones or portable electronic devices. Stationary, grid-scale and industrial lithium-ion Battery Energy Storage Systems under the relevant tariff item are not power banks and remain outside that exclusion.

Computer resources supporting Core Banking Solution, RTGS, NEFT, IMPS switch, UPI switch, ATM switch and SWIFT systems, with associated dependencies, are declared protected systems as Critical Information Infrastructure. Access is confined to bank employees authorised in writing, managed-service-provider personnel and vendors with written need-based authorisation, and consultants, regulators, Government officials, auditors and stakeholders authorised in writing on a case-to-case basis.

Certification requirements now use the term "specified person" in place of "associated person" and define the persons covered, including relevant employees of foreign portfolio investors and foreign venture capital investors working in India. Certification may be obtained through a NISM-specified course or programme, alongside existing routes. Certificate validity and renewal may extend beyond three years where specified by the Board. Related terminology is updated for debenture trustees and self-regulatory organisations.

State Forensic Science Laboratory, Police Line Campus, Tikarapara, Raipur, Chhattisgarh, is designated as an Examiner of Electronic Evidence within India under section 79A of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Its authorised scope comprises Computer (Media) Forensics and Mobile Devices Forensics, covering computer-media and mobile-device forensic work.

Karnataka Bank Limited's computer resources relating to its Core Banking Solution, Real Time Gross Settlement and Unified Payments Interface Switch, including associated dependencies, are declared protected systems as Critical Information Infrastructure. Access is authorised for designated employees, authorised managed-service-provider personnel and third-party vendors on a need-based basis, and consultants, regulators, government officials, auditors and stakeholders authorised in writing on a case-to-case basis. The designation takes effect upon publication in the Official Gazette.

Vault Managers must implement procedures for deposit, storage and withdrawal; maintain security policies addressing operational and cyber threats; and periodically reconcile physical bullion against their own records and records maintained by depositories, clearing corporations, asset management companies or custodians. Bullion underlying bullion related instruments must remain within the vaulting system and be segregated instrument-wise and entity-wise. Every Vault Manager must appoint a compliance officer, indemnify beneficial owners for losses caused during vaulting services, and cannot create bullion related instruments or deposit stored bullion in its own name.

Appointments to the three Grievance Appellate Committees are revised under rule 3A of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. Committee 1 and Committee 2 receive substituted whole-time members, while Committee 3 is reconstituted with an ex officio Chairperson and two whole-time members. Each whole-time member holds office for three years from assuming office or until further orders, whichever occurs earlier.

Central Government designates the Centre of Excellence in Digital Forensics (CoEDF) as an Examiner of Electronic Evidence within India under section 79A of the Information Technology Act, 2000. The authorised scope covers Computer (Media) Forensics and Mobile Devices Forensics. Gazette Notification No. 3390, dated 8 August 2023, is rescinded.

Proposed GST reforms would remove the statutory arrest mechanism, raise the prosecution threshold, reduce residual penalties and introduce a minimum aggregate tax threshold for specified demand notices. They would also expand input tax credit and refund eligibility, automate key refund stages, simplify registration and e-commerce registration, and introduce return-mismatch correction and objections to credit blocking. Transit interception would be intelligence-led and restricted, while export, reverse-charge e-invoicing, zero-rating, intellectual-property treatment and selected goods and services would receive targeted changes. Legal effect remains subject to enactment, prescribed conditions and implementation measures.

GST return mismatches are identified as a recurrent basis for tax demands notwithstanding the need to establish actual short payment. An alternate mechanism for amendment of liability and input tax credit (ITC) in returns is proposed to take effect from the April 2027 return period. The mechanism is intended to enable correction and reconciliation of return data, reduce mismatch-based demand notices and system-generated intimations, and strengthen ITC integrity throughout the supply chain.

Sections 122(1A) and 132(1) are analysed as requiring cumulative proof that a person orchestrated a covered fraudulent transaction and personally retained its illicit economic benefit. Liability is not based solely on office, professional involvement, signing or filing records, or receipt of an ordinary commercial payment. Proof should identify both the act of orchestration and a financial trail establishing the benefit retained. The same threshold is applied to civil penalties, prosecution, and arrest-related action, with coercive measures not resting on suspicion or incomplete evidence.

Income deemed to be received includes prescribed recognised provident-fund accretions, transferred provident-fund balances, and specified employer or Central Government pension contributions. Specified dividends are treated as income in the tax year when declared, distributed, or paid, while interim dividends are income when unconditionally made available to the entitled member. Differences in drafting may require fresh interpretation, and deeming rules may create timing mismatches where income is accounted for or realised in a later year.

Proposals contemplate reducing the maximum general penalty under section 125 and introducing a common minimum monetary threshold for demand notices under sections 73, 74 and 74A, including pending unadjudicated cases when implemented. Comprehensive officer guidelines would address notice and order quality, timeliness, fraud-based grounds, and natural-justice safeguards. Recommended changes to blocked input tax credit would cover specified business inputs and losses. An optional ARQP scheme is approved in principle for eligible small B2C taxpayers.

GST confiscation challenges ordinarily proceed through the statutory appeal. Direct writ intervention requires an established jurisdictional defect, genuine denial of natural justice, infringement of fundamental rights, or a challenge to the governing law. Allegations concerning document supply, hearing, evidentiary evaluation, findings or reasons must be tied to a specific defect; where they require examination of the record, they generally remain matters for appellate review. Compliance with filing conditions, including limitation and pre-deposit requirements, remains necessary.

The resolution professional supervises repayment-plan implementation and may seek directions from the Adjudicating Authority. Completion requires a notice and implementation report to persons bound by the plan and the Adjudicating Authority. If the plan ends prematurely, the resolution professional must report payments, reasons, and unsatisfied claims; a debtor or unsatisfied creditor may seek a bankruptcy order. PGIRP-5 records implementation, discharge, and premature-closure information, while quarterly PGIRP-6 records process status, stays, withdrawals, delays, and completed activities.

Excise-duty liability cannot rest solely on a discrepancy in an ER-6 return where the corresponding ER-1 return is available but not examined and no independent evidence establishes unaccounted or clandestine clearance. The extended limitation period is unavailable where the relevant ER-6 return and the assessee's explanation were already within departmental knowledge, because suppression is not established. A show-cause notice issued after the normal period is therefore time-barred, leaving the related duty demand and penalty without an adequate evidentiary or limitation basis.