A single FIR may cover complaints by multiple victims alleging cheating arising from one criminal conspiracy when the alleged acts form part of the same transaction. The relevant assessment considers unity of purpose and design, proximity of time and place, and continuity of action; these indicators are not cumulative. Later complaints concerning the same cognizable occurrence may be treated as investigation statements rather than requiring a second FIR. Joint charges and trial depend on the Magistrate's assessment of the investigation material; separate trials are required where the acts lack the necessary factual nexus, subject to statutory joinder provisions.

For cheque dishonour involving a company account, the company is the drawer and primary offender under the Negotiable Instruments Act. Vicarious liability of an authorised signatory, director, or person in charge arises only if the company is arraigned as an accused, making its inclusion a mandatory precondition. A complaint omitting the company has a fundamental defect and cannot validly support cognizance. Section 319 of the Code of Criminal Procedure cannot be used to add the company later to cure that defect after the limitation period for filing a complaint has expired; a fresh complaint must be filed within limitation or after condonation for sufficient cause.

Penalty for incomplete transit documentation cannot rest solely on blank columns 7 and 8 of Form 38. Incomplete entries, without additional material indicating a contravention, do not justify an adverse inference against the dealer. Penalty under Section 54(1)(14) is therefore unsustainable where the only alleged defect is the failure to fill those columns, and the issue stands resolved in favour of the assessee rather than the Revenue.

VAT under the composition scheme arises on execution and registration of the sale deed, not on advances received from prospective purchasers during construction, where a binding advance ruling so provides. The ruling under Section 67(4) binds Commercial Tax Department authorities, preventing an assessing authority from adopting a contrary interpretation. "Received or receivable" must be read with the requirement to discharge tax in the month the property sale is concluded and registered, based on the consideration in the initial agreement. Levying VAT on pre-registration advances would also undermine legal certainty and legitimate expectation and create impermissible double taxation.

Separate rentals for Electronic Data Capture Terminal machines constitute consideration for transfer of the right to use goods where identified equipment is installed at merchant premises and made available for accepting customer payments. Retention of ownership, maintenance obligations, supervisory controls, restrictions on alteration or transfer, and deactivation rights do not negate the deemed-sale element. Service tax paid on a service component does not preclude VAT on the identifiable deemed-sale component. Undisclosed terminal-rental receipts were treated as taxable turnover, with statutory interest and penalty applying consequentially.

Article 226 jurisdiction is ordinarily unavailable for recovery of a differential tax amount withheld under a private construction contract when the agreement contains an operative arbitration clause. The payment dispute remains within private contractual law, and, where arbitration has already been invoked, the claim for the deducted amount must be pursued before the arbitrator. Entitlement to the differential tax amount remains for arbitral adjudication rather than determination through a public-law remedy.

Compression of natural gas into cascades solely to facilitate transportation does not constitute deemed manufacture where the gas is decompressed at customers' premises and sold as natural gas rather than CNG. Note 5 to Chapter 27 treats compression as manufacture only when undertaken to market the gas as CNG; accordingly, no excise duty, interest or company penalty arises under the stated arrangement. Personal penalties on the Chairman-CEO, being consequential to the unsustainable duty demand against the company, also do not survive.

Cenvat credit is admissible where the taxable service was rendered, service tax was paid, and the supporting proforma invoice contained the material prescribed particulars; its label alone does not defeat credit, particularly when regular invoices subsequently cover the same service and tax. Recovery through the extended limitation period requires evidence of suppression. Disclosure of the credit in statutory returns, audit quantification of the disputed credit, and departmental knowledge of the relevant tax payments and invoices preclude extended limitation where no further investigation establishes suppression. Accordingly, the credit remains available and the proposed recovery is time-barred.

Clean Energy Cess on removal of raw coal is imposed on the producer under the Clean Energy Cess Rules, 2010; purchasers who merely buy coal are not liable for that cess. Penalty for dealing with confiscation-liable goods requires, under Rule 26 of the Central Excise Rules, 2002, a finding that the person knew or had reason to believe the goods were liable to confiscation. Rule 25 applies to specified regulated categories and does not extend to ordinary purchasers outside those categories. In the absence of such a finding, purchasers of confiscated coal cannot be penalised, and penalties collected for release of the coal must be returned.

Manufacture requires transformation into a new and distinct marketable article with a different name, character or use; labour, skill, value addition or processing alone is insufficient where the commodity remains commercially unchanged. Note 6 to Section XVI applies only when an incomplete or unfinished article with the essential character of a finished article is converted into the complete article. Where imported photocopier modules were already assessed as complete machines and warehouse operations were limited to unpacking, grouping, pinning and plugging modules for customer-specific dispatch, those operations did not amount to manufacture. Rule 2(a), being a classification rule, does not determine whether a later process constitutes manufacture.

Road construction and maintenance services performed for municipal and public works authorities fell within the road-related works exempt under Notification No. 25/2012-ST, based on supporting certificates and documents. Receipts for supply of soil represented a sale of goods and were not subject to service tax. A bona fide belief regarding the exempt or non-taxable nature of these receipts did not support invocation of the extended limitation period under Section 73(1). The service-tax demand, together with consequential interest and penalties, was therefore unsustainable.

Service tax on mining royalty depends on when the right to use natural resources was provided or agreed to be provided. Where mining rights were allotted before their exclusion from the negative list, subsequent execution of a lease deed or payment of royalty after 1 April 2016 does not make the earlier assignment taxable; the Point of Taxation Rules cannot expand the charging provision. Extended limitation is unavailable where taxability was a bona fide interpretational dispute, relevant transactions were disclosed in statutory records, and there was no suppression, fraud, wilful misstatement or intent to evade tax. The demand, consequential interest and penalties were therefore unsustainable.

Documents and certificates concerning road repair and maintenance services were material to determining entitlement to service-tax exemption. As they went to the root of the exemption claim, the original authority was required to conduct a fresh merits examination. The matter was remanded for de novo consideration within three months; limitation was not examined.

Service-tax demands based solely on differences between Form 26AS and ST-3 returns cannot invoke the extended limitation period without affirmative evidence of fraud, wilful suppression or intent to evade tax; the demand, related interest and penalty for tax evasion were therefore time-barred. Mandatory pre-show cause notice consultation, required for the applicable demand category when the notice was issued, was not undertaken and independently vitiated the notice; a later circular could not retrospectively cure that defect. However, admitted delayed filing of ST-3 returns remained an independent procedural default, and the separate penalty for delayed filing was upheld.

Marketed information technology software recorded on media is goods under Article 366(12) of the Constitution, and its sale is a deemed sale excluded from the definition of service under the Finance Act, 1994. Failure to establish conditions concerning valuation, duties or invoice declarations under Notification No. 11/2016-ST does not convert an otherwise sale-of-goods transaction into a taxable service. Accordingly, service tax, consequential interest and penalty relating to packaged software sales were set aside. Late fees for failure to file service tax returns within the prescribed period after registration remained enforceable under the applicable return-filing provisions.

Road-construction works performed for the Public Works Department for general public utility fall within the exemption for such works under Notification No. 25/2012-ST. Form 26AS receipts alone do not establish service-tax liability: the taxing authority must independently verify the nature of the underlying activity, consider available exemptions and supporting records, and prove that the receipts constitute taxable consideration. A demand based solely on third-party Form 26AS data, without such enquiry, is unsustainable; related interest and penalties also cannot stand.

Service-tax adjudication of composite works contracts requires determination of the taxable service component under Rule 2A, excluding the value of property transferred in goods or applying prescribed valuation percentages where applicable. The assessment must also determine the assessee's status where reverse-charge liability depends on whether it is a partnership firm or company, and decide notification eligibility through reasoned findings. Availability of a statutory appeal does not bar writ jurisdiction where the challenge concerns the foundational validity of assessment, including valuation provisions, notification-based liability and constitutional limits on taxing goods transfers. The adjudication requires fresh, reasoned determination after hearing the assessee.

Writ jurisdiction under Article 226 to challenge a provisional attachment under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 is confined to exceptional cases of patent arbitrariness, mala fides, or manifest lack of jurisdiction where statutory adjudication and appellate remedies are available. A pre-registered predicate case is not indispensable for attachment under the Act where the order refers to FIRs alleging cheating, a scheduled offence, and information has been transmitted to the jurisdictional police. Objections to overseas advertisements and the quantification of proceeds of crime involve disputed facts and must be examined through the statutory process.

Closure reports filed by an investigating agency must be finally considered and decided by the Trial Court before which they are pending, rather than by the High Court. A final order of a Special Court, whether resulting in conviction, acquittal or complete discharge, does not by itself obstruct further investigation or trial, and statutory remedies remain available to the parties. The pending closure report is to be decided within two months, while proceedings concerning concluded Special Court matters remain subject to the earlier directions without further interference.

Restoration of corporate debtor assets improperly dealt with during the CIRP moratorium may be directed under Sections 14 and 60(5) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code without establishing fraudulent or wrongful trading under Section 66. Sections 14 and 17 protect the insolvency estate by prohibiting asset dealings and placing management with the resolution professional, while Section 60(5), read with Rule 11, supports consequential restoration orders. The stated basis includes sale of mortgaged property during moratorium despite refusal of permission and unexplained withdrawals. Action under Section 74 is described as infructuous following its omission with effect from 26 May 2026.