https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=450132 CBDT instructions issued under Section 119 of the Income-tax Act were treated as binding on income-tax authorities, and the Digital Evidence Investigation Manual was held to prescribe mandatory safeguards for search, seizure, documentation, hash value recording, chain of custody, and cloning of digital media. Non-compliance rendered the collection and preservation of electronic evidence legally infirm. The writ petitions were maintainable despite an alternate appellate remedy because the challenge concerned alleged statutory non-compliance and breach of procedural fairness. The assessments were set aside as vitiated by denial of relied-upon materials, cross-examination, and personal hearing, and the matter was remanded for fresh consideration. en-us Fri, 23 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0530 Fri, 15 May 2026 17:30:00 +0530 TaxTMI RSS Generator https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=450132 CBDT instructions issued under Section 119 of the Income-tax Act were treated as binding on income-tax authorities, and the Digital Evidence Investigation Manual was held to prescribe mandatory safeguards for search, seizure, documentation, hash value recording, chain of custody, and cloning of digital media. Non-compliance rendered the collection and preservation of electronic evidence legally infirm. The writ petitions were maintainable despite an alternate appellate remedy because the challenge concerned alleged statutory non-compliance and breach of procedural fairness. The assessments were set aside as vitiated by denial of relied-upon materials, cross-examination, and personal hearing, and the matter was remanded for fresh consideration. Case-Laws Income Tax Fri, 23 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0530 https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=450132