Renting residential dwellings for use as residence falls within the service-tax exclusion under Section 66D(m) of the Finance Act, 1994. Lease evidence established residential use for the first three properties, consistent with acceptance of the same lease terms for a later period. The fourth property was also leased for residential use by employees. All four properties therefore met the statutory condition, making the related service-tax demand, interest and penalty unsustainable.

Works contract services for repair and painting of shops operated by governmental authorities were treated as exempt where agricultural-produce marketing was connected with agriculture and agricultural extension, a Panchayat function under Article 243G. The exemption could be claimed before the Tribunal even if not raised before lower authorities. Extended limitation could not support service-tax demands where the dispute concerned notification interpretation, regular ST-3 returns were filed, and no fraud, wilful misstatement, or suppression with intent to evade tax was established; related interest and penalties were consequently unsustainable. Rental receipts remained eligible for threshold exemption because exempt receipts were excluded from taxable-value computation.

Copyrighted software licences permitting pre-installation and sublicensing before 16.05.2008 fall outside Intellectual Property Right Service where copyright is excluded and no separate intellectual property right recognised under Indian law is identified. The later introduction of a specific levy for commercial exploitation of information technology software supports non-taxability under the earlier entry. Extended limitation requires suppression with intent to evade; prior departmental disclosure and a bona fide taxability dispute do not satisfy that standard. Revenue neutrality, where reverse-charge tax would be available as Cenvat credit for dutiable manufacture, further negates intent to evade. The service-tax demand, interest and penalties therefore do not survive.

Goods Transport Agency classification depends on whether carriage documents contain the essential particulars of a consignment note, not on whether they carry that title. Bills evidencing transportation may qualify, and recipient certificates confirming GTA services and reverse-charge tax payment support that classification. Service-tax turnover cannot be determined solely from Form 26AS or income-tax records without verifying books, invoices, and underlying transactions. Where ST-3 returns were regularly filed and relevant information was already available, similar facts cannot establish suppression to invoke the extended limitation period. Consequently, the disputed service-tax demands, interest, and penalties were unsustainable.

Retention of seized materials and cash, and continuation of freezing orders over bank and demat accounts, were justified under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. The company was involved in collecting investor funds through false assurances of high returns, while the appellant's status as majority shareholder and authorised signatory, and the company's operation from his residential address, supported his involvement. Resignation as director before the stated crime period did not displace that connection. The appellants failed to establish an independent lawful source for the funds, shares, and other property. Where direct proceeds of crime are not fully traceable, equivalent-value property may be proceeded against, including property acquired before the crime period.

Money-laundering proceedings may continue after compromise-based quashing of an individual scheduled-offence FIR unless the quashing conclusively establishes that no proceeds of crime existed. A compromise does not by itself negate alleged criminal proceeds, particularly where the investigation concerns connected FIRs and a wider alleged fraud. The anti-money-laundering bail conditions apply to property derived directly or indirectly from scheduled criminal activity and are not confined to the amount alleged in a single predicate FIR. Bail parity depends on materially comparable roles and circumstances. Prima facie evidence of control over conversion entities, financial dealings, use of dummy directors, and flight-risk indicators may prevent satisfaction of both ordinary bail considerations and the statutory twin conditions.

Interference with a High Court's interim arrangement was not warranted where the arrangement was balanced and adequately protected the interests of all parties. The merits remained reserved for determination in pending writ proceedings, and no view was expressed on those merits. The Special Leave Petitions were disposed of without disturbing the interim order.

Section 37A(1) of the Foreign Exchange Management Act permits seizure of Indian property equivalent in value to foreign exchange, foreign security or overseas property suspected to have been held in contravention of Section 4. At the seizure-confirmation stage, material need only establish a prima facie case, with final adjudication remaining separate. Tally data, emails, witness statements, a token-based cash-delivery mechanism, identified intermediaries and matching overseas bank deposits supported a prima facie inference of unauthorised fund transfers from India to Dubai. The overseas company's separate legal personality and an Income-tax Act settlement did not preclude FEMA seizure proceedings. Refusal to confirm seizure was therefore unsustainable.

Distribution under a resolution plan may allocate amounts among secured financial creditors pro rata to their admitted claims, irrespective of the value of their individual security interests. Section 30(2)(b) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code protects a dissenting financial creditor's minimum entitlement, while Section 30(4) leaves allocation among creditor classes and sub-classes to the Committee of Creditors' commercial wisdom. Where the distribution mechanism receives the requisite approval and a dissenting secured creditor receives more than its liquidation-value entitlement, it cannot claim a higher payout solely based on its security interest.

Belated creditor claims in the corporate insolvency resolution process are examined in the context of a challenge to an approved resolution plan. The subject concerns whether a creditor may pursue a claim after delay once the insolvency resolution process has progressed to approval of the plan, and the resulting effect on the finality of the resolution framework. The material identifies the interaction between late claims, creditor participation, and challenges to approved plans, without setting out the underlying legal reasoning or detailed factual basis.

Section 9 insolvency limitation runs separately from the date each operational debt becomes due and payable and default occurs. Continued subsistence of an EPC contract does not create a continuing cause of action for accrued defaults, and creditor-issued legal notices cannot extend limitation without the debtor's written acknowledgment. Consequently, an insolvency application filed more than three years after default is time-barred. Contractual milestone payments for goods and works qualify as operational debt, while unadjudicated suspension, idling and demobilisation damages do not. An EPC contract does not end merely through suspension or efflux of time where termination remains elective and no supervening impossibility exists. A genuine pre-existing dispute requires contemporaneous evidence; silence until the insolvency application does not establish one.

Trading while in possession of unpublished price sensitive information attracts the prohibition under Regulation 4(1) of the 2015 PIT Regulations, unless the trader establishes a recognised or analogous exonerating circumstance. The stated corporate purpose of a sale, use of proceeds, absence of profit, and reliance on the predecessor regulatory regime do not displace the presumption where possession and trading are admitted. Loss averted through insider trading may be disgorged as part of directions for contravention, and code-of-conduct penalties may be sustained. The insider-trading penalty imposed on one respondent was reduced as excessive after applying the statutory factors, while market-access restraints, disgorgement, and other penalties were reinstated.

Registration of a partnership firm was established through the Registrar of Firms' memorandum and certified Form VIII, removing the bar on instituting a suit under the Indian Partnership Act. However, recovery based on individual unpaid invoices was time-barred because the claim was not founded on a running account, and the relevant communication acknowledged and paid only specified invoices while disputing others. Winding-up proceedings did not suspend or extend limitation for an independent civil recovery action. Consequently, the firm could validly institute the suit, but no monetary recovery was available for the time-barred invoice claims.

Section 28(11) of the Customs Act validates jurisdiction for customs notices issued by empowered officers, while the Commissioner's SEZ jurisdiction may extend to central-excise powers under applicable notifications. Duty-free SEZ clearances based on fraudulent, invalid, unregistered or unsupported advance-licence arrangements fail to satisfy exemption conditions. Earlier assessment of bills of entry does not prevent duty recovery where fraud and diversion of goods are established; extended limitation may then apply under customs and central-excise law. Sorting, stripping, cutting and segregating imported mixed scrap into commercially distinct ferrous and non-ferrous scrap constitutes manufacture. Fraudulent diversion can also sustain confiscation consequences and separate penalties on an involved partnership firm and active partner.

Use of forged DEPB scrips and Transfer Release Advices for nil-duty import clearance renders the documents void from inception and constitutes a positive misstatement. Fraud, collusion, wilful misstatement or suppression supporting extended-period duty recovery also satisfy the conditions for mandatory penalty equal to duty under Section 114A where the importer fails to establish reasonable due diligence. The statutory provisos allow reduction of that penalty to 25% if the prescribed payments are made within 30 days of communication of the order; this concession applies where timely compliance is established and uncontested.

Transaction value for declared brass scrap cannot be enhanced under the identical-goods valuation method without particulars or documentary evidence of contemporaneous imports of identical goods. Tariff coverage and applicable specifications did not exclude the imported tubes from brass scrap merely because of their length or uniformity, while the departmental assessment conflicted with expert findings on serviceability. Confiscation, redemption fine and penalty for misdeclaration require reliable proof that the goods were serviceable pipes rather than rejected or discarded scrap. Unsupported visual inspection cannot displace contrary expert material; consequently, the differential-duty demand and related confiscatory and penal consequences were unsustainable.

Limitation for customs appeals may permit exclusion of time spent pursuing a remedy before the wrong customs office under Section 14 of the Limitation Act, particularly where that office neither transfers nor promptly returns the appeal. An appeal transmitted by e-mail within the prescribed period, with a physical copy dispatched the same day, may also be treated as timely or within the condonable period. Refund of excess duty paid under protest may be available where final Bills of Entry accept the importer's declared classification and Revenue has neither challenged nor reopened those assessments. Each finally assessed Bill of Entry is independently determinative; refund does not extend to provisionally assessed Bills of Entry.

For inland seizure of unmarked gold, diamond jewellery and cash, reasonable belief of smuggling must rest on pre-seizure material and prima facie proof of foreign origin. In the absence of foreign markings, corroborating forensic or documentary evidence, or proof of importation or statutory prohibition, Section 123 does not shift the burden of proving non-smuggled character to the assessee. Investigation statements cannot alone support confiscation or penalties unless statutory conditions governing their evidentiary use are met and independent corroboration exists. Domestic procurement invoices available on the GST portal, with no disputed genuineness, supported release of the goods and cash; confiscation and penalties were unsustainable.

Penalty for shortage of duty-free gold and silver requires reliable proof of deliberate diversion or intent to evade duty; a reported theft, voluntary payment of duty and interest, and absence of revenue loss do not by themselves establish penal liability. Untested statements cannot support penalty unless the statutory safeguards for their use are met, and an unverified recovery not linked to the missing goods provides no independent corroboration. Penalties on the proprietorship concern, its supervising individual, and the person alleged to have removed the goods were therefore set aside. Differential customs duty and applicable interest on the stock shortage remained payable. Separate penalty on the proprietor was impermissible because a proprietorship concern and its proprietor are not distinct legal persons.

A Customs Broker's acceptance of examination findings does not bind an importer on classification or valuation unless the broker has authority to act for the importer. Attendance by the broker and a Chartered Engineer at examination does not itself establish the importer's presence or acceptance, and treating it as such breaches natural justice. Reclassification and revaluation require reliable evidentiary support, including appropriate specialist opinion, testing or market enquiry where the goods' nature is disputed. Where alleged steel coils were claimed to be damaged scrap intended for melting and the claim was not disproved, misdeclaration, confiscation, redemption fine and penalty were unsustainable.