Retention of seized cash under Section 132B cannot continue after completion of the searched person's assessment where no demand remains against that person. Subsequent reassessment proceedings against a non-searched assessee, without a warrant of authorisation, do not permit continued withholding of cash accepted as belonging to that assessee. The cash must be released after adjustment against the assessee's tax liability. Interest calculated on the amount must remain in an interest-bearing deposit pending determination of entitlement to interest by a Larger Bench. Pending disposal of the appeal, retention beyond tax adjustment was prohibited.

Enhanced exemption for leave encashment under section 10(10AA)(ii), notified with effect from 1 April 2023, is claimed by retired employees who superannuated before the notification came into force. Since the petitions were filed before expiry of the period for filing revised returns, the employees may pursue revised returns and other remedies available under the Act. Eligibility for the enhanced exemption, including its application to pre-notification superannuation, remains open for consideration in those proceedings.

Charitable registration requires examination of both the stated charitable objects and prima facie evidence that genuine charitable activities are being carried on. Educational objects in a trust deed are insufficient where the trust does not itself establish, manage, or impart education through a recognised educational institution. Leasing school and hostel premises to another educational entity and earning lease rent does not, by itself, demonstrate that the lessor trust conducts educational charitable activity. In the absence of evidence that rental income was applied to the trust's own charitable purposes, the registration application was rejected.

Section 144B did not apply where the assessment was made by the jurisdictional Assessing Officer outside the faceless-assessment framework and mandatory notices had been issued; procedural non-observance therefore did not invalidate the assessment. Rejection of books of account and profit estimation in online share trading require substantial accounting discrepancies and adherence to best judgment principles. Absence of matching bank credits or an adverse turnover-to-expense ratio alone was insufficient where broker-mediated pay-ins and payouts, regular accounting methods, and transactional evidence were not properly considered. Profit estimation must have a rational, business-specific basis rather than rely on guesswork; the estimated profit addition was deleted.

Section 12AB(4) requires an inquiry and satisfaction of a specified violation before a notice proposing cancellation of charitable-trust registration. A notice must identify the statutory basis and alleged violation, and must give a reasonable opportunity to respond; failure to do so renders cancellation and refusal of renewal unsustainable. Cash deposits during demonetisation could not support non-genuineness where they had already been accepted as reported fee receipts. Related-party payments connected with protecting hospital-asset interests did not establish diversion of funds or a non-genuine activity. A section 13(1)(c) issue is not itself a specified violation for cancellation and may instead affect exemption at assessment. Renewal and consequent section 80G approval were directed.

Tax deduction at source under section 194C applies to External Development Charges paid to the urban development authority, rendering the payer liable for non-deduction, subject to the pending Supreme Court proceedings. Payments later characterised as administrative charges for changes in beneficial interest and development rights require verification of the supporting evidence, the applicable State scheme, the payments' nature, and any resulting obligations under Chapter XVII-B. Those disputed payments require de novo determination by the Assessing Officer after admission of evidence and an adequate hearing. The Revenue's position succeeded on External Development Charges, while the remaining TDS issue was restored for fresh adjudication.

Reopening beyond four years may be sustained where subsequent survey information indicates bogus purchase and sale transactions and the original assessment did not examine those transactions. Production of records does not establish full and true disclosure when the transactions themselves are allegedly non-genuine, and fresh information with a live nexus to income escaping assessment is not a change of opinion. For unproved business transactions, banking-channel payments alone do not prove genuineness without evidence of physical movement of goods. Where both purchases and corresponding sales are treated as bogus, income should be estimated by applying a gross-profit rate to turnover rather than adding the entire purchases, with credit for profit already disclosed.

Section 270AA penalty immunity cannot be rejected without identifying the statutory condition not met and giving the assessee an opportunity of hearing. The immunity application requires fresh consideration so that compliance with the prescribed conditions can be demonstrated; where immunity is available, consequential penalty proceedings become infructuous. Where no original return was filed and income was disclosed only in response to a reassessment notice, the disclosed income constitutes under-reported income in the absence of an explanation for the initial non-filing. If immunity is denied, penalty proceedings require a speaking order after hearing the assessee.

Revision under section 263 must be initiated within two years from the end of the financial year in which the assessment order was passed. The limitation expired before the first revisionary notice and order were issued, rendering the revisionary order time-barred and liable to be quashed. Independently, revision of the assessment treating integrated hardware systems with embedded software as non-royalty was unwarranted because the Assessing Officer had examined the agreements, copyright rights, software and services, and the India-United Kingdom tax treaty. Consistent earlier decisions and the Supreme Court's Engineering Analysis ruling supported the non-royalty treatment, so the assessment order was not erroneous or prejudicial to Revenue interests.

Souharda Sahakaris registered under the Karnataka Souharda Sahakari Act, 1997 are treated as co-operative societies for deduction under section 80P. Where credit facilities are provided exclusively to members, income from that activity is attributable to the eligible business under section 80P(2)(a)(i), and dealings confined to members preserve mutuality. Interest earned by placing surplus funds, not immediately required for member lending, in bank deposits remains attributable to the credit-facility business rather than constituting a separate business. Such interest consequently forms part of the qualifying profits for the section 80P deduction.

Interest on borrowings used to acquire or maintain controlling interests through strategic investments may qualify as business expenditure where the taxpayer's objects, investment pattern, conduct and disclosures establish that strategic investment is part of its business. The business-purpose requirement extends beyond immediate profit generation; dividend being taxed under another head or investments not producing direct business receipts does not by itself defeat deductibility where commercial expediency exists. Separately, where available interest-free funds exceed investments and interest-free advances, investments are presumed to have been made from those funds. Absence of a direct fund-wise nexus therefore does not justify disallowing interest on borrowings.

Functional comparability of IT-enabled BPO service providers requires exclusion of entities with materially different business models, including providers that outsource most services, operate at a substantially larger branded scale, perform high-end KPO or engineering-design functions, or lack relevant segmental information. A consistently accepted comparable may remain included where no material distinction exists. These principles supported deletion of the transfer-pricing adjustment. IT-enabled back-office and data-processing services covered by notified activities qualify as export of computer software for the claimed deduction. Where identical deductions were allowed in earlier years and circumstances remain unchanged, the consistency principle supports allowance. The Revenue's appeal was dismissed.

Section 80JJAA deduction for additional employee cost was allowed to a manpower-services provider because it remained the employer of personnel deployed at customers' premises. Eligible claims for the second and third consecutive years require verification and remain subject to the gross-total-income limit. Chapter VI-A deduction cannot be claimed against income enhanced through an arm's length price adjustment, as the statutory prohibition applies even where the deduction is employee-cost based. Transfer-pricing issues concerning KPO characterisation, Salesforce intra-group service charges, and GAP/GSS programme revenue require fresh examination of functional comparability, supporting documentation, transaction nature and the appropriate pricing method.

Commercially genuine exclusivity payments, transition-fee reimbursements and upfront discounts made to associated enterprises cannot be disregarded merely because their commercial structure is unusual or their expediency is questioned. Arm's length pricing cannot be fixed at nil without applying a prescribed transfer-pricing method; where the underlying primary adjustment fails, consequential notional interest also fails. Secondary-adjustment provisions do not apply to primary adjustments preceding 1 April 2016. Interest on a foreign-currency associated-enterprise loan is benchmarked at LIBOR plus 80 basis points. For exempt-income disallowance, only income-yielding investments are relevant and sufficient own interest-free funds preclude in.....

Negative liens over participating interests in oil and gas blocks and related receivables, created to secure associated enterprises' borrowings, are treated as international transactions where they restrict the asset-owning entity's ability to charge, borrow against, or expand using its operating assets. A lender's security interest may continue despite the borrower entities' bankruptcy. Arm's-length pricing must reflect the negative lien's factual character and resulting impairment of borrowing capacity; averaging bank-guarantee rates or applying loan-benchmarking approaches is not appropriate. The arm's-length price requires fresh determination under applicable transfer-pricing provisions.

One-time clubhouse charges, corpus fund contributions and municipal taxes paid to a developer during acquisition may form part of a residential property's cost of acquisition where they have a direct and proximate nexus with obtaining the asset and its attendant rights. Cost is not limited to the basic sale price; the purpose of each payment, its commercial context and supporting evidence determine its treatment. Clubhouse charges linked to the flat, non-refundable corpus contributions for enduring common infrastructure, and municipal taxes collected during construction may qualify where they are not recurring post-acquisition liabilities. Such amounts are includible in the relevant cost components for capital-gains computation, with consequential indexation where otherwise admissible.

Section 90(2) permits a taxpayer to elect the more beneficial treatment available under domestic tax law or the India-Mauritius DTAA; treaty treatment cannot be imposed where the domestic-law position is more favourable. This principle supports setting off current and brought-forward long-term capital losses on shares acquired before 1 April 2017 against taxable capital gains from shares acquired thereafter. The claimed losses are to be considered in recomputing taxable income where the taxpayer validly exercises the beneficial statutory option.

Welfare-fund contribution deductibility depends on comparing the employer's contribution with gross salary, rather than figures distorted by separate accounting of net salaries and combined employee-employer PF and ESI payments. Contributions remaining within the prescribed ceiling are not treated as excess. Disallowance of expenditure relating to exempt income under section 14A read with rule 8D does not arise where no exempt income is earned. Amounts recovered through customer service bills for canteen and transportation facilities used by deputed employees may qualify as business expenditure when incurred wholly and exclusively for the business and supported by customer-bill records.

FSSAI no-objection certification issued after prescribed laboratory analysis is treated as a conclusive determination that imported food goods conform for human consumption. Customs reclassification should not reopen that food-safety determination through separate testing or seizure after FSSAI clearance. Provisional release conditions based on the proposed contrary classification, including a bank guarantee, are inconsistent with the conclusive effect attributed to the FSSAI clearance. Sale in the open market remains subject to obtaining a fresh FSSAI fitness certificate.

Customs Broker licence-revocation inquiries must permit cross-examination where the charges rely on witnesses' oral evidence. Section 108 authorises Customs officers to summon persons during an inquiry, whereas Section 138B governs the relevance of statements in specified circumstances and principally concerns offences and prosecutions; it does not displace the inquiry safeguards under the Customs Brokers Licensing Regulations. Regulations 17(3) and 17(4) require relevant oral evidence to be taken and allow the Customs Broker to cross-examine persons examined in support of the charges. Denial of that opportunity is a curable procedural infirmity, for which remand for fresh adjudication after cross-examination may be maintained rather than setting aside the revocation proceedings entirely.