Foreign exchange market conditions supported an early appreciation of the rupee against the US dollar, attributed to lower global crude oil prices, a weaker dollar, sustained foreign portfolio inflows, higher foreign exchange reserves, and Reserve Bank of India presence in the foreign exchange market. Domestic equity market gains and net foreign institutional equity purchases were also identified as supporting factors.

Unregulated AI use in legal practice may introduce non-existent authorities, inaccurate citations and falsely attributed passages into adjudication, undermining the rule of law and decision-making integrity. The article supports verified and accountable AI use by the Bar and Bench, zero tolerance for unverified AI-generated precedents, and disciplinary measures for their submission. It identifies public policy, enforceable rules and professional guidance as necessary to govern AI in legal work and adjudication.

Input tax credit under Section 16(2)(c) of the CGST Act is contingent upon actual remittance of tax by the supplier to the Government. The conditions for credit are treated as cumulative and linked to the reversal and re-availment framework and the recipient's burden to establish eligibility. Input tax credit is a statutory concession subject to strict compliance. Where credit is reversed for supplier non-payment, it may be re-availed after the supplier discharges the tax liability. Supplier due diligence, compliance monitoring and contractual indemnities are identified as safeguards.

Landlords may face prolonged rent non-revision, delayed fair-rent fixation, and burdensome procedures for recovering rent deposited before rent-control authorities. For private premises leased to Central Government departments, rent reasonableness assessment may use recognised valuation principles and prevailing market rent, with due consideration of the lease deed and prescribed fair-rent assessment material. The commentary favours commercial leases with periodic, market-linked rent revision and contractual flexibility over rent-control arrangements.

Section 73(2) requires a GST show cause notice to be issued at least three months before the Section 73(10) deadline for passing an order; it does not impose a compulsory three-month gap between notice and order. Adjudication must nevertheless provide a meaningful opportunity to respond, supported by natural justice. The same supplies for the same tax period must be treated consistently as either exempt or taxable, since contradictory treatment affects the basis of liability and input tax credit consequences.

Taxpayer cooperation in assessment and appeal proceedings requires prompt replies to show-cause notices, production of supporting evidence, disclosure of material facts, and requests for cross-examination where necessary. The article uses the Jajodia Finance proceedings to illustrate the consequences of failing to respond to a notice on a claimed share-trading loss and failing to participate before the first appellate authority. It recommends placing additional evidence before the appellate authority with reasons for earlier non-production, seeking comments from the assessing officer, challenging adverse factual findings where appropriate, and requesting remand for fresh consideration when relevant material has not been examined.

GST departmental appeal policy permits scrutiny beyond monetary limits where a legal issue is capable of repeatedly affecting future transactions, tax periods, or similarly placed taxpayers. Section 120 authorises monetary thresholds while preserving the Department's ability to contest the same or similar issue in another appropriate case. A recurring issue concerns repeated applicability of the same legal question under substantially similar facts and law. It is distinct from a continuing wrong, involving a persisting wrongful state, and from merely repeated fact-specific disputes.

Post-award interim relief under Section 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, is available even to a party unsuccessful before the arbitral tribunal. However, such relief is confined to rare and compelling circumstances and requires heightened scrutiny. The applicant must satisfy the requirements of a strong prima facie case, balance of convenience, irreparable injury, and overall interests of justice. Interim measures must not indirectly stay, suspend, or neutralise an award, and courts must not reappreciate evidence or review the merits of the arbitral dispute.

Provisional release under Section 110A of the Customs Act is an interim mechanism and should not predetermine disputed classification, import restrictions, confiscation, or penalties. Restriction or prohibition does not automatically bar release; the authority must exercise statutory discretion on the facts and impose reasonable safeguards. Administrative instructions cannot curtail that discretion. Bonds, security, and conditions may protect revenue, but cannot make release commercially impossible. Re-export may address import-policy concerns by preventing domestic circulation while avoiding continuing detention losses and preserving adjudication.

GST notices and orders must be served through statutory modes, and mere uploading in the "View Additional Notices and Orders" portal section is insufficient unless it qualifies as the notified common portal for service. Effective service is a substantive safeguard of natural justice, ensuring taxpayers have a genuine opportunity to respond before civil consequences arise. Exclusive portal uploading may affect ex parte proceedings and appellate limitation where taxpayers lack effective notice. Actual participation in proceedings may preclude a later challenge based solely on defective service of the show cause notice.

Medical negligence claims require a claim-by-claim survivability assessment after the alleged practitioner's death. Measurable financial losses, such as medical, treatment and hospital expenditure, may be pursued against the deceased practitioner's estate. Claims for pain and suffering, mental agony, emotional distress, loss of amenities and other personal injuries generally do not survive. Legal representatives are involved only as representatives of the estate; liability is limited to inherited assets and does not extend to their personal property.

Admission of a signed cheque, its dishonour due to account closure, and receipt of statutory notice triggers presumptions that it was issued for consideration and a legally enforceable debt, placing the burden on the accused to establish a probable defence. An unsupported repayment plea does not rebut those presumptions. A security cheque remains actionable where liability has matured, and voluntary delivery of a signed blank cheque permits completion of particulars absent cogent rebuttal. A cash loan violating tax restrictions may attract penalty but does not invalidate the debt. Revision cannot reassess concurrent factual findings without perversity, jurisdictional error, or legal untenability; the conviction and sentence were sustained.

In cheque-dishonour proceedings, a Magistrate may satisfy the pre-summoning inquiry requirement by examining the complaint, affidavit and supporting documents; personal examination of witnesses is not indispensable where those materials establish a prima facie offence. Admission of cheque execution triggers presumptions of consideration and issuance towards a legally enforceable debt or liability. Defences that cheques were presented prematurely or that no liability was due involve disputed facts requiring evidence and should ordinarily be raised at trial rather than resolved through quashing jurisdiction. The prosecution proceeds, with statutory presumptions and trial defences to be determined on evidence.

Writ review extends to a private body performing a sector-wide regulatory function where its action materially affects an advocate's professional rights. A banking fraud-prevention Caution List may address fraud involving dishonest intent or deliberate wrongdoing, but cannot be used to list an advocate solely for negligent legal advice or deficient title verification. Banks may end empanelment for dissatisfaction, yet cannot impose sector-wide professional consequences or determine alleged professional incompetence. The Advocates Act assigns disciplinary assessment of advocates' negligence or misconduct exclusively to Bar Councils through a structured process. Adverse Caution List remarks were required to be removed, and the Bar Council of India was directed to review disciplinary accountability and continuing legal education.

Security deposit retention requires the employer to establish the contractor's default, resulting loss and contractual authority for any deduction after completion and expiry of the retention period. Alleged input tax credit loss from defective VAT invoices cannot support withholding without evidence of actual denial, causation and reliable quantification, particularly where invoices were accepted and processed. Contractual clauses permitting recovery of loss or compensation do not authorise unproved statutory adjustments. Although the contract excluded interest during valid retention, continued withholding after expiry of the performance guarantee period attracted interest at a commercially equitable rate rather than the higher rate claimed.

Repeated mechanical adjournment requests undermine timely justice delivery and may justify dismissal for non-prosecution. Under Rule 20 of the CESTAT Procedure Rules, 1982, an appeal was dismissed after the appellant repeatedly sought adjournments beyond the permitted limit and did not pursue the matter. Repeated adjournments, whether sought personally or through counsel, are condemned because routine grants delay adjudication and impair the justice delivery system.

Repeated mechanical adjournment requests undermine the justice delivery system and have been condemned by the Supreme Court. Under Rule 20 of the CESTAT Procedure Rules, 1982, an appeal may be dismissed for non-prosecution where the appellant repeatedly seeks adjournments and exceeds the permitted limit. The rule was applied after the appellant's counsel sought adjournments personally or by letter without prosecuting the appeal, resulting in dismissal for non-prosecution.

Cenvat credit is admissible for services, inputs and capital goods used to maintain and operate a fly ash pond, and for loading, unloading and transporting fly ash to a cement manufacturing unit. Fly ash is a raw material, and pond maintenance, extraction and inward movement activities have a direct nexus with manufacture. Rule 2(l) of the Cenvat Credit Rules, 2004 covers services used directly or indirectly in relation to manufacture and does not require eligible services to be performed within factory premises. The post-2011 omission of setting-up services does not exclude services independently covered by the principal definition.

Review of the Supreme Court's earlier dismissal of the special leave petitions was refused because no ground for review was established from the order or record. The Court permitted filing of the review petitions with additional grounds and condoned the filing delay, but declined the request for an open-court hearing. The review petitions were consequently dismissed. The underlying subject concerns refund of an unlawfully collected amount, constitutional invalidity of a levy or premium, unjust enrichment, restitution for payment made under a mistake of law, and the effect of higher courts leaving legal questions open.

Refund of accumulated unutilized Cenvat credit cannot be denied for lack of nexus between input services and exported output services where that nexus has already been settled in the assessee's favour for the relevant services. The earlier appellate basis for rejecting refund had been overturned, and the identical ground could not be used to deny refund for the later period. Consequential relief was available in accordance with law.