Service-tax liability under the reverse-charge mechanism is revenue-neutral where any tax paid would be fully available to the same assessee as CENVAT credit. In those circumstances, the payment creates an equivalent credit entitlement, rendering the service-tax demand unsustainable. A consequential penalty is likewise unsustainable where the underlying demand fails on revenue-neutrality grounds.

Composite works contracts involving both construction and transfer of materials were not taxable under construction of residential complex service before works contract service became taxable on 1 June 2007. The earlier entry neither imposed a charge on the composite transaction nor prescribed a valuation mechanism to separate the service component from the goods component. Abatement notifications could not remedy the absence of a charging provision. Consequently, service tax demands on such pre-1 June 2007 residential-complex works contracts were unsustainable.

Amended Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 covers a public servant obtaining or accepting an undue advantage for self or another through abuse of position or corrupt or illegal means. It corresponds to Section 5(1)(d) of the J&K Prevention of Corruption Act, rather than Section 4-A. Because paragraph 8 of the PMLA Schedule includes amended Section 7, Section 2(2) treats the corresponding J&K provision as a scheduled offence. Criminal activity under that provision can therefore generate proceeds of crime for money-laundering purposes, sustaining Enforcement Directorate jurisdiction to register an ECIR and issue summons.

Humanitarian parole may be warranted where a prisoner's spouse has advanced, undisputed cancer and the prisoner's presence is sought to facilitate treatment. The existence of other family members able to provide care does not by itself justify refusal when the illness is grave. A brief period of parole enables the prisoner to attend to the spouse and support treatment.

Section 13(1) of FEMA imposes civil regulatory penalties once a contravention is established and does not require proof of wilful conduct, intention, or mens rea. For conduct occurring before its omission took effect, section 6(3)(b) continued to govern foreign remittances and foreign investment. Non-compliance includes delayed receipt and share-allotment reporting, allotment of shares to an entity other than the remitter, and deployment of remittances in a restricted real-estate sector. Administrative difficulty, eventual regularisation, and absence of loss do not negate established contraventions. Section 13(2) permits discretionary confiscation alongside monetary penalty. Director liability depends on responsibility for company business, knowledge, and due diligence.

Section 9 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code cannot support admission where a corporate debtor raises a plausible, bona fide pre-existing dispute requiring investigation. Disputes over the crystallisation and contractual entitlement to an outcome-based professional fee, the meaning of contractual success, and the effect of pending GST proceedings existed before the statutory demand notice. Rejected invoices and contemporaneous correspondence supported those disputes. The setting aside of the GST order underpinning much of the fee claim, along with unresolved questions concerning the capacity in which services were rendered and the regulatory permissibility of outcome-based fees, meant that no undisputed crystallised operational debt was established.

Pending intervention under Section 60(5) alleging collusive initiation of insolvency proceedings must be determined before final adjudication of a financial creditor's Section 7 petition where the applicant asserts likely prejudice to proprietary interests. Procedural fairness may require prior determination when the corporate debtor's non-participation could affect the applicant's rights in a sugar factory and its assets. The intervention application is to be decided within three months, if still pending, before any final order on the company petition.

Employees' provident-fund and gratuity dues remain outside the liquidation estate and cannot be distributed through the insolvency waterfall. An approved resolution plan must comply with applicable law, and the statutory first charge for provident-fund dues prevails. A successful resolution applicant must discharge provident-fund and gratuity dues in full, including statutory interest payable on provident-fund arrears. Such interest is distinct from damages imposed for default.

Section 61(2) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code imposes a 30-day appeal limitation period and permits condonation for only a further 15 days. Where a tribunal's e-filing system prevents timely bona fide filing through OTP-delivery or backend failures, the unavailable period may be excluded rather than treated as delay attributable to the appellant. The first bona fide filing attempt may be treated as the presentation date, applying actus curiae neminem gravabit and the principle reflected in Order VII Rule 6 CPC. This approach is confined to failures unconnected with negligence, laches, ignorance of law, or appellant fault.

Territorial jurisdiction under Article 226(2) arises where material and integral facts forming part of the cause of action occur within the court's territorial limits. A Central Government direction to investigate a company's affairs necessarily requires examination of its registered or head office at Ranchi, described as the repository and fulcrum of the investigation. That location supplies part of the cause of action, enabling the writ petition to be entertained and defeating the preliminary objection to maintainability.

Section 128 of the Customs Act confines the Commissioner (Appeals)' jurisdiction to appeals by persons aggrieved by orders of subordinate customs officers. A terminal operator that neither filed nor was joined as a party to an importer's appeal cannot be directed to implement a detention and demurrage waiver certificate or refund demurrage. Customs communications recording a recommended waiver and waiver granted by a CFS do not expand appellate jurisdiction over the non-appellant operator. Such directions exceed the Commissioner (Appeals)' statutory authority.

Declared transaction value remains the primary customs valuation basis under section 14. Rules 3 and 12 permit rejection only where stated reasonable grounds create doubt as to the truth or accuracy of the declared value; any redetermination must then proceed sequentially under Rules 4 to 9. Market inquiries or reverse calculations from retail prices cannot substitute that process. Bank-remitted invoice payments, absent proof of extra consideration or misdeclaration, support the declared value. Differential duty paid for provisional release does not constitute acceptance of enhancement. Without lawful undervaluation, confiscation, redemption fine and penalty lack foundation.

Revocation of a Customs Broker licence under the Customs Brokers Licensing Regulations, 2018 requires an established regulatory failure or misconduct, not apprehension of future conduct. A valid importer authorisation satisfied the authorisation requirement, while reliance on importer-supplied Bill of Entry and BIS documents did not show lack of due diligence where a brand discrepancy was detectable only on physical examination. Verified IEC, GST, UDYAM and PAN records met KYC obligations. Participation in examination, seizure, search and hearing proceedings negated non-cooperation allegations. No breach of the cited obligations was established, leaving revocation, security forfeiture and penalty without legal basis.

Anti-dumping duty on castings for wind-operated electricity generators extends to castings imported in raw, finished or sub-assembled form, including castings incorporated into a sub-assembly, equipment or component. The levy is confined to the castings contained in imported gear boxes and does not apply to the gear boxes as complete units. Assessments of identical imports support component-wise levy limited to the covered castings.

Article 226 jurisdiction ordinarily should not be invoked when the Customs Act provides an efficacious appellate remedy, particularly where the challenge requires assessment of disputed facts and merits. The mandatory pre-deposit required for entertaining a customs appeal cannot be bypassed merely on financial-hardship grounds. Objections relating to cross-examination, evidentiary value and retraction of statements, confiscation, and penalty require determination by the statutory appellate forum. The available appellate remedy must therefore be pursued, with all merits issues remaining open for independent consideration.

Voluntary deposits made during a customs investigation may be appropriated towards admitted differential duty, including liability relating to imports outside the limitation period, where the taxpayer requested the adjustment and neither the payment nor its stated purpose was retracted or contradicted. Such appropriation is distinguished from a fresh demand or recovery proceeding under the Customs Act and therefore does not enforce a time-barred demand. Judicial review of a Settlement Commission's factual findings remains limited absent jurisdictional error, breach of natural justice, manifest legal error, or lack of evidentiary support.

Mortgagee banks that know of pending benami adjudication may seek to be added before the Adjudicating Authority; recorded service and absence of prejudice undermine a claim of denied notice or hearing. Benami attachment serves confiscation rather than debt recovery, so a secured creditor's SARFAESI priority does not displace an attachment confirmed over benami property. A mortgage created to defeat confiscation is void, as creditor priority over such property could facilitate evasion through subsequent security interests. The bank must first enforce other securities supplied by the borrower and guarantors and may use the statutory claims mechanism for unrecovered dues.

Rule 10CA(7) requires the arm's length price to be determined by the arithmetical mean where the prescribed comparable-based method applies. The notified tolerance is one per cent only for qualifying wholesale trading in goods and three per cent for all other transactions. Sub-licensing constitutes a service rather than wholesale trading in goods, particularly where the required inventory-related conditions are not met. Consequently, where the variation between the actual transaction price and the arithmetical mean falls within the applicable three per cent range, the actual price is deemed to be the arm's length price and no transfer-pricing adjustment is warranted.

Intra-group management and IT support charges require a verifiable arm's length price analysis based on debit notes, allocation keys, allocation workings and supporting evidence; the determination requires fresh examination. Benchmarking of imported and manufactured finished-goods transactions must rely on reliable comparable data and substantiated segmental results. Where manufacturing operations, capacity constraints, imported procurement and fixed customer prices make separate segment benchmarking unreliable, the interlinked transactions require entity-level benchmarking under an appropriate transfer-pricing method. Agronomy expenditure remains allowable as revenue expenditure, consistently with earlier accepted decisions.

Management and technical fees paid to an associated enterprise cannot be assigned a nil arm's length price where evidence establishes that intra-group services were received and costs were allocated reasonably on a cost-to-cost basis. The benefit test does not require immediate measurable results, and transfer-pricing authorities cannot substitute their business judgment for commercial expediency; the related adjustment was deleted. Interest on outstanding associated-enterprise trade receivables must be recomputed at LIBOR plus 200 basis points after allowing a 60-day credit period.