MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (Department of Electronics and Information Technology) NOTIFICATION New Delhi, the 27th April, 2016 G.S.R. 447(E).- In exercise of the powers conferred by section 87 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (21 of 2000), the Central Government hereby makes the following rules further to amend the Information Technology (Certifying Authorities) Rules, 2000. 1. Short title and Commencement :- (1) These rules may be called the ... ... ...

Form C is inserted in Schedule IV to establish an electronic application process for issuance of an individual-class Digital Signature Certificate through Aadhaar-based identity verification. The application is automatically generated through Aadhaar e-KYC electronic authentication and requires the applicant's photograph, Aadhaar number, name, residential address, and Aadhaar e-KYC services reference number or response code as mandatory particulars.

Exceptional circumstances arising from hospitalisation after an accident and a resulting coma justified equitable writ relief against delay in challenging a service-tax adjudication order. The petitioner's incapacity to conduct business and consequent lack of awareness of the show-cause notice and adjudication order supported departure from the ordinarily available appellate remedy. Fresh adjudication on merits was made conditional on deposit of 25% of the disputed tax within the stipulated period.

Digital signature certification standards require SHA-2 and prescribed cryptographic key lengths of 2048 or 4096 bits, while SHA-1 certificates issued before commencement remain valid until expiry. Key-use requirements mandate periodic replacement of certifying authority and subscriber keys, reasonable notice to relying parties of new signing key pairs, and maximum validity periods of ten years for certifying authority key pairs and associated certificates and three years for subscriber key pairs and associated certificates.

The amendments require both the Digital Signature and its attached digital signature certificate to be stored or transmitted with the electronic record. Digital Signature Certificate verification must proceed through the Controller's self-signed certificate, the licensed Certifying Authority's public key certificate, and the subscriber certificate. The certificate revocation list must be checked for validity or revocation, and signature verification fails where any certificate in the trust chain is untrusted.

Financial stability is pursued by strengthening resilience rather than preventing every shock. The framework combines prudent regulation, risk-based supervision, stress testing, countercyclical macroprudential measures, targeted temporary liquidity assistance and resolution. Monetary policy remains directed to price stability, while financial-stability risks are addressed through regulatory, supervisory and macroprudential tools. System-wide resilience requires sound banks and NBFCs, reliable payment and technology infrastructure, robust data on interconnected exposures, scenario analysis, credible safety nets, and proactive proportionate oversight of cyber, model and third-party risks.

Jai Research Foundation is approved as a Research Association for scientific research under section 45(4)(b), for the purposes of section 45(3)(a)(i) and Income-tax Rules 32 and 33. The approval applies for tax years 2026-2027 through 2030-2031, subject to compliance with rule 33. For each tax year in which donations are received, the association must prepare and deliver Form 15 by 31 May following that tax year. It must also provide each donor with a Form 16 certificate specifying the donation amount.

Import of insecticides included in the Schedule to the Insecticides Act for non-insecticidal use, including acrylonitrile, requires an import permit under the amended Insecticides Rules. Applications must be filed with the Registration Committee in Form IA, supported by information on manufacturing use, storage, regulatory approvals, import history and consumption. The Committee may verify the information, process complete applications within the prescribed timeframe, and issue permits generally valid for one year or for three years where the importer holds pesticide-registration certification for raw-material use. Pending portal applications are subject to the revised requirements. Incomplete applications may be rejected, and permits may be cancelled for incorrect information. Small unit packs of certified reference materials or reference standards are exempt.

Trade Finance Sub-Committee composition is revised uniformly for all interventions under the Niryat Protsahan sub-scheme of the Export Promotion Mission. The committee is co-chaired by the Development Commissioner, Ministry of MSME, and the Additional Secretary for Trade Finance, Department of Commerce, with members representing trade finance, financial services, export promotion, internal finance, credit-guarantee and export-finance functions. The EPM-section Joint DGFT serves as convenor. Representatives of export credit insurance, banking, financial-services centres and factoring entities participate as invitees. The committee may co-opt additional participants and engage trade-finance experts or industry representatives for technical appraisal. All other existing provisions remain unchanged.

NRD-CSR (R012) reporting for banks maintaining non-resident deposit accounts is conducted through the CIMS Sankalan portal, replacing the earlier XBRL-based submission framework. Banks must report bank-wise consolidated data using the revised NRD-CSR format, maturity codes, record types and validation checks. Returns may be submitted through system-to-system integration, XML file upload, or a screen-based web form; access and reporting channels are managed through CIMS. Monthly returns must be submitted by the 10th day of the following month. The directions are issued under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999, without affecting approvals required under other laws.

Authorised Dealer Category I banks and Category II entities must maintain internal guidelines for facilitating outward foreign exchange remittances through online or physical submission of Form A2 and related documents. Approval for those guidelines may now be given by the Board, a Board Committee, or a Management Committee where the Board has delegated that power. Existing requirements governing online or physical Form A2 submissions otherwise remain unchanged. The directions operate without affecting any separate permission or approval required under other applicable laws.

Schedule IV is amended by substituting Form C for applications seeking an individual Digital Signature Certificate. The substituted form establishes an electronically generated application process based on eKYC-based identity verification. It requires the applicant's eKYC number, name, email address, residential address and mobile phone number, identifies mandatory fields, and records authentication through eKYC services using the relevant response code.

Omission of Rule 96(10), effective from 08 October 2024 without a saving clause, applies to integrated-tax export-refund proceedings pending on that date. Such claims are assessed without the former restriction concerning specified notification benefits because Section 6 of the General Clauses Act does not preserve an omitted subordinate rule. The omission does not remove independent requirements for zero-rated supplies, refund eligibility, export documentation, returns, limitation, verification, or the applicable Rule 96 and Rule 89 procedures.

Special leave petition in an income-tax dispute was dismissed after condonation of delay. Pending applications were disposed of. No reasons, statutory interpretation, or determination of the underlying tax issue is recorded. The operative effect is procedural closure of the special leave proceedings and all associated applications before the Supreme Court.

Interim protection from arrest is ancillary to a live anticipatory-bail proceeding and cannot subsist as a freestanding direction after an application is dismissed as not maintainable. Under the GST arrest framework, a summons does not by itself make the summoned person an accused or create a legally sustainable apprehension of arrest. Arrest depends upon the Commissioner's reasons to believe and an order authorising arrest. The Section 69 authorisation order must be communicated before arrest, enabling the affected person to pursue available remedies before personal liberty is curtailed.

Section 111A requires qualifying short-term capital gains to be taxed at the prescribed special rate, while section 87A operates as a rebate from income-tax computed on total income for an eligible resident individual under the applicable section 115BAC(1A) regime. Special-rate taxation governs computation and does not itself imply exclusion from the rebate. Unlike section 112A(6), section 111A contains no express provision reducing the rebate base by tax on qualifying gains. Eligibility depends on the statutory terms applicable for the relevant assessment year.

Commencement of the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2023 is fixed for 3 October 2023 insofar as its Schedule, serial number 29 and corresponding entries amend the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995. The specified provisions take legal effect only in relation to that identified Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act component.

Under the former reassessment framework, time allowed or extended for an assessee's reply to a Section 148A(b) show-cause notice is excluded when computing the Section 149 limitation period. A notice is not invalid merely because the response period runs beyond the original limitation deadline. After that exclusion, where the remaining time does not exceed seven days, the sixth proviso provides a seven-day terminal period for issuing the Section 148A(d) order and consequential Section 148 notice. The exclusion does not create an open-ended period. Limitation must therefore be computed through the complete chronology of response periods, adjournments, extensions, reply-stage closure, and issuance of both the order and notice.

Reassessment validity depends on distinct safeguards governing notice, limitation and approvals. Under section 149(1)(b), extended limitation may apply where books, documents or evidence reveal qualifying escaped income represented as an asset, relevant expenditure, or entries in books of account; these are alternative statutory categories. Digital and handwritten cash-book records may constitute books of account when supported by possession, control, corroboration and taxpayer nexus. Section 151 sanction requires genuine consideration of the reopening proposal and material, but need not contain elaborate reasons. Approval for a section 143(2) notice must precede its issuance, and contemporaneous electronic communication may establish timing despite a later postal receipt. Section 148B approval for the assessment order remains distinct from notice-stage and scrutiny-notice approvals.

Section 87A rebate was treated, for the pre-restriction period discussed, as available against income-tax on total income, including tax on short-term capital gains subject to special-rate taxation, where a resident individual met the new-regime eligibility conditions. The distinction between special-rate computation and rebate availability was central: the special-rate provision determined tax on qualifying gains but contained no express rebate exclusion. By contrast, the express exclusion for specified long-term capital gains supported the view that a similar restriction could not be implied for short-term gains. Later statutory language limiting the rebate was prospective and requires separate assessment where applicable.