Statutory housing board functions directed at housing development and general public utility can retain charitable status despite receipts that resemble commercial activity. Charges collected while discharging statutory public functions do not, merely because of their commercial character, trigger the exclusion for trade, commerce or business under section 2(15) read with section 13(8). The housing board therefore remained eligible for income-tax exemption under sections 11 and 12, and the Revenue's challenge to that exemption failed.

Penalty for furnishing inaccurate particulars cannot survive where it rests solely on a bad-debt disallowance that has been deleted. Once the Tribunal deleted the quantum addition and the High Court confirmed that deletion, no tax liability remained in respect of the disallowance. The consequential penalty for concealment or furnishing inaccurate particulars was therefore deleted, with the Tribunal's deletion sustained and the revenue's appeal dismissed.

Refunds arising from TDS assessments under section 201 or appellate orders constitute crystallised entitlements payable with statutory interest, without requiring Form 26B. Section 200A, Rule 31A and Form 26B govern CPC processing and adjustment of TDS before assessment and do not apply to post-assessment refunds. Such refunds may be withheld or set off against outstanding demands only through a statutory adjustment order under section 245; demands linked to the taxpayer's PAN or related TANs alone do not justify withholding. The Department was directed to release the refunds with applicable interest, with additional interest for delayed credit.

TDS credit cannot be denied where the assessee establishes that tax was deducted from its income, merely because the deductor failed to deposit it with the Central Government. A claim admitted in the deductor's insolvency process for unpaid receivables does not preclude such credit. The Assessing Officer must verify the claim under the prescribed procedure and grant credit and consequential relief if established. An intimation under Section 143(1), as a deemed notice of demand, must be served on the assessee before the demand can be enforced. In the absence of proof of service, recovery and refund adjustment under Section 245 cannot stand; the demand is quashed and adjusted amounts must be refunded with applicable interest.

Section 148A requires the assessee to receive information suggesting income has escaped assessment, not the source of that information. Particulars in the annexure to a reassessment show-cause notice may satisfy this requirement where they identify the basis and reasons sufficiently for a response; non-disclosure of an audit objection does not invalidate the notice. However, where an assessee asserts that a taxable marked-to-market hedge-reserve amount was included in an earlier year, the assessing authority must verify that claim and its consequences. Failure to do so requires reconsideration after hearing the assessee, including additional supporting material.

Draft assessment procedure under section 144C applies mandatorily where an assessee's non-resident status is accepted and the assessment falls within that provision. A final assessment made directly under section 143(3), without first forwarding a draft assessment order, is void. The appellate finding invalidating the assessment was sustained, and the Revenue's appeal was dismissed.

Under section 68, an assessee initially establishes unsecured loan credits by proving creditor identity, transaction genuineness and prima facie creditworthiness. Confirmations, tax particulars, bank statements and ledger accounts showing banking-channel transactions shift the burden to the Revenue. Low lender income, cash deposits before cheques or incomplete records may warrant further inquiry but do not alone displace that evidence; continuing accounts and banking-channel repayments support genuineness. The unsecured-loan addition was therefore deleted. Employees' PF/ESI contributions are deductible only when deposited within the due date under the relevant welfare legislation; payment before the income-tax return filing due date does not cure the delay. The related disallowance was sustained.

Assessing Officers must independently evaluate material and determine assessment issues; administrative supervision cannot displace their quasi-judicial discretion. Incorporating superior-authority directions or inputs without independent satisfaction renders an assessment legally unsustainable. For alleged on-money receipts, electronic communications and third-party statements require an opportunity for confrontation and cross-examination. The presumption concerning seized material is rebuttable and applies against the person from whom it is seized. WhatsApp chats concerning developed plots, unsupported by cash evidence, purchaser admissions, acknowledgments or other corroboration, cannot be extrapolated to undeveloped-plot sales where val.....

Penalty for accepting cash sale consideration under section 271D was examined in a co-owned property transaction involving an alleged contravention of section 269SS. The relevant circumstances included disclosure of the full sale consideration for taxation after receipt of cash and the absence of penalty against a co-owner participating in the same transaction. Applying the coordinate Bench approach on identical facts, the penalty was deleted. The discussion treats subsequent tax disclosure, comparable treatment of co-owners, and reasonable cause as material considerations in determining whether a cash-acceptance penalty should stand.

Interest on borrowings used to acquire plant, machinery, scrap, land and buildings held as current assets for sale in an asset-trading business is revenue expenditure. The proviso to section 36(1)(iii), which restricts interest deduction until an acquired asset is first put to use, does not apply where the assets are acquired solely for resale and are neither intended nor required to be used in manufacturing. Borrowings for buying and selling such assets are for business purposes. Acquisition-related expenses incurred in dealing in current assets for sale are likewise revenue expenditure allowable under section 37(1), rather than capital expenditure.

Club membership and subscription expenditure is deductible where its business purpose and nexus are established; an ad hoc disallowance requires identification of particular personal or non-business payments, resulting in deletion of the club-expense disallowance. Where own funds exceed exempt-income investments and borrowings serve specified business purposes, investments are presumed funded from own funds, eliminating interest disallowance under section 14A. Administrative disallowance must have a rational nexus to, and cannot exceed, exempt income. Internal handover, capitalisation and deployment records can establish that machinery was put to use, supporting depreciation and additional depreciation. Electrical installations integral to manufacturing machinery qualify as plant and machinery for additional depreciation. Both appeals were partly allowed.

Actuarially determined provision for accumulated non-encashable sick leave constitutes an accrued employee-benefit liability where employees earn paid future leave through services rendered during the relevant year. The employer's obligation to grant paid absence when leave is used remains a financial obligation, despite no employee right to receive cash for unused leave. Uncertainty over the employee or timing of future utilisation does not make a scientifically estimated liability contingent. As no payment is made in lieu of leave, leave-encashment payment conditions do not apply. The provision is deductible as an accrued business liability, and the disallowance was deleted.

Penalty for misreporting under section 270A(9) requires a notice identifying the precise statutory instance alleged, because each form of misreporting calls for a distinct explanation. An assessment for the year preceding a search must follow the prescribed reassessment procedure, and an invalid assessment may be challenged in penalty proceedings where it forms the penalty's foundation. Voluntary disclosure of additional professional income, even if accepted in assessment, does not by itself establish misreporting. Section 271AAD addresses false entries or omissions linked to fraudulent input tax credit arrangements and does not extend merely to unrecorded professional receipts represented by cash found in search.

Valuation of consideration for a limited patent-use licence turned on materially divergent expert reports applying an internationally accepted cost approach and a substantially higher departmental valuation. Neither valuation position was accepted in full. A lump-sum estimate was adopted in the interest of justice, expressly without precedential effect, fixing the amount attributable to the limited patent-use right at USD 900,000. Consequential computation was directed in accordance with law, and the appeal was partly allowed to that extent.

TDS credit omitted from an original return may be claimed through rectification where Form 26AS reflects the deduction and the corresponding income has been offered to tax. Mere failure to claim the credit in the original return should not result in its denial in those circumstances. The Assessing Officer must verify the TDS claim and inclusion of the related income before granting the credit.

Enhanced leave-encashment exemption for non-government employees is treated as a beneficial, curative fiscal measure addressing hardship from the previously unrevised limit. Such beneficial provisions receive liberal construction and apply to pending proceedings unless retrospective operation is expressly barred. On that basis, the enhanced ceiling under section 10(10AA) applies to Assessment Year 2021-22, allowing exemption of the full leave-encashment receipt within that ceiling and removing the related addition.

Jurisdictional defect in an assessment may be raised in collateral penalty proceedings where the assessment was made without a valid notice under section 143(2) from the jurisdictional Assessing Officer. An order made without jurisdiction is a nullity and may be challenged whenever enforcement or reliance is attempted, notwithstanding that the assessment has attained finality. Because the assessment was invalid and non est, the consequential penalty order was quashed.

Timely pronouncement of reserved judgments required release of an indirect-tax writ petition after the Bench could not adhere to stipulated timelines. Applying the principle concerning prompt delivery of reserved decisions, the matter was placed before the regular Bench hearing indirect-tax writ petitions. Interim status quo was directed to continue for four weeks, preserving the parties' existing position pending further hearing.

Customs Broker licence revocation requires a serious breach of primary regulatory obligations; address-change and Customs Station intimation failures, and signature-related irregularities, are procedural contraventions warranting penalty rather than revocation or security forfeiture. Electronic processing through ICEGATE means same-day clearances at multiple ports do not, without supporting evidence, prove licence subletting. Client due diligence does not require physical verification of premises, and undisclosed DRI notices cannot be inferred without proof of receipt. A Customs Broker's compliance-advice duty is limited to documents handled at entry or departure and does not extend to exporters' downstream excess RoSL claims. Licence revocation and security forfeiture were set aside, while procedural penalties were maintained or reduced.

Voluntary statements made by an importer, its proprietor and its agents during a Customs Act inquiry may be relied on as substantive admissions where they acknowledge under-invoicing and retail sale price misdeclaration. Denial of cross-examination does not breach natural justice where those persons cannot be compelled to depose against themselves. Original supplier invoices recovered from the importer's laptop and forensically examined in its presence constitute primary electronic evidence, without requiring a certificate applicable to secondary electronic records. Evidence of misdeclaration justified rejection of the declared transaction value and sequential redetermination under the Customs Valuation Rules. The consequential duty demand, confiscation and penalties were sustained.