DGFT has strengthened the PSIA/PSIC digital workflow by requiring PSIC generation and issuance on the actual inspection date, with later system generation not permitted. Inspection dates are standardised, and authorised users may maintain scanned signatures and official stamps for automatic embedding in PSICs. Inspector details are selected through a system-populated dropdown, while country selection enables automatic retrieval of read-only registered instrument details. The framework also expands digital inspection evidence through increased photograph capacity and an enhanced inspection-video limit. PSIAs must maintain accurate master data and complete certificate-related steps as part of the inspection-day workflow.

Contract Lifecycle Management is a continuous control system for managing contracts from initiation through drafting, negotiation, approval, execution, performance, renewal, amendment, termination and closure. It should ensure contractual enforceability, appropriate signatory authority, clear obligations, controlled risk allocation and compliance with applicable legal requirements. Defined templates, risk-based reviews, Delegation of Authority controls, execution checks, centralized storage, obligation ownership, renewal alerts and documented amendment procedures support effective management. Tax, cross-border, technology, data-protection and other transaction-specific considerations should be addressed where applicable.

ELRM should operate as an enterprise-wide system for identifying, assessing, controlling and monitoring legal, regulatory, contractual, governance and reputational risks. A Legal and Regulatory Universe and Compliance Obligations Register should map applicable requirements, owners, deadlines, evidence, risk ratings and escalation routes. Business functions own compliance under a three-lines model, while Legal and Compliance provide oversight and Internal Audit gives independent assurance. Risk-based controls, incident management, third-party diligence, plant-level accountability, role-specific training, technology-enabled monitoring and Board dashboards support escalation, remediation and continuous improvement.

Union regulation of fishing in the EEZ and State regulation of territorial waters operate in distinct constitutional fields and must be implemented cooperatively. EEZ Access Passes permit regulated fishing beyond territorial waters, while State rules may govern transit and fishing within territorial waters. States should prescribe specified transit channels for purse-seine vessels holding the required EEZ permissions, taking account of relevant expert recommendations. The Access Pass framework also requires effective coordination between the Union issuing authority and State verifying authority. Prolonged non-verification cannot function as an unwritten prohibition on a lawful occupation; applications require efficient and timely verification and clearance under the governing rules.

Penalty under Section 10A of the Central Sales Tax Act requires proof of mens rea and false representation in the use of Form C. Purchase of an excavator at the concessional rate for civil works, mining and excavation did not satisfy those requirements where the machinery was used in the registered business and no mala fides or false claim of entitlement was established. Subsequent amendment of the registration to include civil contractor activity supported the bona fide business use. In the absence of the essential ingredients for penalty, the levy could not be sustained.

Turnover enhancement and rejection of books of account require established, quantified suppression supported by specific adverse material; unverified invoices alone do not justify enhancement where other transaction records have been verified and no suppression is detected. Input tax credit cannot be reversed merely because suppliers' registrations are cancelled after the transactions, if the suppliers were registered on the transaction dates and banking records and contemporaneous documents establish purchase and physical movement of goods. On these principles, the tax determination based on turnover enhancement and input tax credit reversal lacked legal sustainability.

Consequential demand notices cannot be used to reopen assessment orders that have attained finality after statutory appellate and revisional remedies have been exhausted. An advocate's asserted illness does not establish denial of reasonable opportunity where the taxpayer has pursued multiple remedies challenging the assessments. Recovery demands flowing from concluded assessments therefore remain unaffected by a challenge seeking to revisit the underlying liability. Any further challenge must proceed through the available statutory remedy, subject to compliance with its prescribed prerequisites.

Under the Delhi Sales Tax Act, 1975, the Railways may fall within "dealer" because the definitions of business and dealer encompass Central Government sales activities irrespective of profit motive. A transfer of rolling stock is taxable only when the Railways held title as principal and transferred the property to the financing corporation for consideration, including adjustment of advances. Rolling stock procured solely as the corporation's agent passes directly from manufacturers and creates no intermediate sale. For established sales, exclusion from Delhi tax requires transaction-specific proof that the sale occasioned inter-State movement or occurred outside Delhi; manufacture, dispatch, later use elsewhere, or head-office location is insufficient. Taxable turnover must exclude agency-procured stock and be determined assessment-year-wise.

Buyer-funded tooling constitutes additional consideration only to the extent of the proportionate amortised value attributable to finished goods. Assessable value should reflect the tool's expected life, production capability and quantity of goods manufactured, rather than the entire tooling advance upon receipt. Reliable tooling, production, invoice and payment records may substantiate the amortisation method; a Cost Accountant's certificate is not an indispensable statutory requirement. Extended limitation requires deliberate suppression, misstatement or withholding of material information with intent to evade duty. Prior disclosure during audit, bona fide valuation methodology, revenue neutrality and duty payment on amortised cost preclude extended limitation, consequential interest and penalty.

Transaction value under a buyback arrangement cannot serve as assessable value where batteries are supplied below manufacturing cost, co-packed into torches sold exclusively back to the supplier, and the price is neither arm's length nor the sole consideration; cost-based valuation was therefore sustained. Extended limitation requires suppression or an equivalent statutory ground. Registration, prescribed returns and Revenue knowledge of the agreements precluded extended limitation, rendering that demand time-barred, although demands within the normal limitation period and interest remained enforceable. Penalties based on suppression failed, and the CENVAT-credit penalty provision was inapplicable because no wrongful credit availment or utilisation was alleged or invoked.

Excise duty paid during an intervening disputed period may be treated as paid under protest under Rule 233B where formal protest records are unavailable but accepted protests exist immediately before and after that period. Continuous challenge to duty liability, particularly where the underlying contention that the activity did not constitute manufacture has attained finality, supports that treatment. Payment under protest excludes the limitation bar otherwise applicable to the refund claim, preserving entitlement to refund.

Plastic lamination of cotton, jute or man-made fabrics produces a commercially distinct article and constitutes manufacture. Job-work exemption depends on the principal manufacturer's undertaking or declaration that processed goods will be used for dutiable final products or export; incidental inputs used by the job worker do not negate job work, but unsupported clearances remain dutiable. Laminated HDPE fabrics are not excluded as plastic strips and qualify for small-scale industry exemption. Rule 10A excludes notional profit from job-work valuation, while own-account sale prices are cum-duty values. Extended limitation applies where required undertakings were missing for some clearances. Personal penalty fails absent an order of confiscation. Duty requires redetermination accordingly.

Timely revised pre-GST returns can establish entitlement to differential Cenvat credit even where the credit was not carried forward through TRAN-1. Under the CGST transitional provisions, admissible credit disclosed in a return revised within the permitted period may be refunded in cash, subject to the applicable unjust-enrichment requirements. Eligible pre-GST credit refund claims are to be processed under the existing law, and inability to amend a TRAN-1 declaration does not extinguish an admitted substantive credit entitlement. The differential credit is consequently refundable in cash with consequential relief according to law.

Construction of residential complexes by a builder for prospective purchasers before 1 July 2010 was treated as self-service and was not subject to service tax, including where undertaken through composite works contracts. The Explanation inserted in section 65(105)(zzzh) of the Finance Act, 1994 deemed construction intended for sale by a builder to be a service provided to the buyer, thereby expanding the taxable-service scope. Its operation was prospective from 1 July 2010 and did not apply to pre-insertion construction activities. Accordingly, no service tax liability arose for such pre-1 July 2010 residential-complex construction.

Extended limitation for service-tax recovery requires evidence of a positive, deliberate act of suppression with intent to evade tax; mere non-payment or non-declaration is insufficient. Interpretation of the exemption for airfield drainage services under Entry 12(e) of Notification No. 25/2012-ST supported a bona fide belief that the services were exempt. As no wilful suppression was established, the extended period under Section 73(1) of the Finance Act, 1994 was not available, rendering the demand sustained solely on that basis unsustainable.

Section 73(3) of the Finance Act, 1994 removes penalty exposure where short-paid service tax and applicable interest are paid before a show cause notice is issued, with those payments validly appropriated. Rule 6(4A) of the Service Tax Rules, 1994 permits excess service tax paid in one period to be adjusted against liability in a succeeding month or quarter. Applying the General Clauses Act principle that singular includes plural, "succeeding" periods are not confined to the immediately following month or quarter. Accordingly, adjustment against a later succeeding period is permissible absent an express restriction.

Approved resolution plans bind the Central Government in respect of statutory dues and settle or extinguish claims not included in the plan. Where no departmental claim was lodged for service-tax liabilities arising before the resolution-plan closing date, the pre-plan demand falls within the plan's settlement mechanism. Consequently, the service-tax demand, together with related interest and penalty, stands discharged and settled under the approved resolution plan.

Pre-01.07.2012 service-tax demands under the positive-list regime required the show cause notice to identify the specific taxable service under Section 65(105) of the Finance Act, 1994. Foreign-currency expenditure and reverse-charge non-payment alone could not establish liability across heterogeneous transactions. An appellate authority could not introduce new classifications, such as Commercial Training or Coaching Service or Club or Association Service, to cure that foundational omission. Accordingly, the restored demand lacked a valid notice-based basis; consequential interest and Section 78 penalty also failed. Separately adjudicated post-01.07.2012 proceedings remained outside the scope of reopening and retained their existing effect.

Composite engineering assignments are classified by their specific description and essential character under section 65A, rather than by inspection-related components that are ancillary to the overall engineering engagement. Drawing assistance, technical clarification, product development, rectification, material specifications and quality coordination support classification as engineering services rather than Technical Inspection and Certification Service. Services supplied to an overseas contractual recipient for convertible foreign exchange qualify as exports where the recipient is abroad and the Department cannot establish domestic use or that physical availability of goods was necessary. Prior disclosure of the arrangement prevents extended limitation based on wilful suppression; consequential tax, interest and penalties do not survive without sustainable liability.

CENVAT credit remains available for eligible input services received at unregistered premises because registration of the premises is not a condition for credit. Credit is excluded, however, for the service portion of works contracts used to construct or set up BPO branches, absent proof that the services were solely for repair, renovation, or modernisation. Extended limitation requires fraud, wilful misstatement, suppression, or intent to evade tax; disclosure in ST-3 returns, refund claims, and related proceedings confines recovery to the normal period. Interest follows the surviving inadmissible credit demand, while penalties do not arise merely from non-inclusion of premises under centralised registration.