The Tonnage Tax Scheme confines relevant shipping income to profits from specified core and prescribed incidental shipping activities. Receipts from tender-document sales, contractor-delay damages, leased quarters, training fees, other operating income, and salary recoveries from resigned employees fell outside that scope, whereas scrap and empties sales, exchange differences, waste-oil sales, insurance claims, and provision reversals were treated as connected with dredging operations or not separately taxable. Service charges received differing treatment across assessment years in line with earlier determinations. Sponsorship for a maritime investment event qualified as business promotion expenditure because it had a direct business nexus .....

Time-barred DRP objections leave no valid objections for consideration. The AO must complete the assessment under section 144C(4)(b) on the basis of the draft order within the prescribed period and cannot await the DRP's disposal of belated objections. Statutory limitation binds both the assessee and the Revenue. A final assessment issued after that period because of such delay is barred by limitation, void ab initio, and liable to be quashed; merits need not be considered.

Penalty for alleged cash receipt cannot be imposed without demonstrative evidence establishing the actual cash transaction required for the cash-receipt restriction. Material showed a cash receipt only to a limited extent, while the balance was inferred conjecturally. Because the Revenue did not establish the factual basis for invoking section 269SS, deletion of the section 271D penalty was confirmed and its appeal dismissed.

Foreign-contribution disclosures under the FCRA and the income-tax return serve distinct reporting purposes and must be reconciled on substance rather than form. Foreign contributions and interest earned from them may be separately disclosed in audited accounts and the return even where the FCRA declaration includes both amounts. For processing under section 143(1), documents accompanying the return form part of the return; before making a mismatch adjustment, the CPC must provide an opportunity and consider the taxpayer's explanation in rectification proceedings. The adjustment treating the reporting difference as undisclosed income was deleted.

Business-expenditure deductibility after transfer of a branch undertaking depends on whether retained statutory assets and related expenditure continued to serve the business. The phrase "for the purpose of business" extends to acts incidental to carrying on business, but substantial legal and professional expenses cannot be allowed without complete particulars on their nature, purpose, and connection with business operations. Where those facts have not been examined, the disallowance requires fresh factual verification. The expenditure claim was remitted for de novo assessment, with the disallowance set aside for reconsideration in accordance with law.

The enhanced tax rate under section 115BBE, operative from 1 April 2017, applies prospectively and therefore covers surrendered income from excess stock and cash for Assessment Year 2019-20. As the amended provision was already in force for that year, surrendered income was taxable at the enhanced rate. Rectification under section 154 to correct the tax computation was sustained.

Section 24 requires the Initiating Officer to first issue notice to the alleged benamidar, disclose the reasons for believing the property is benami, and only then seek prior approval for provisional attachment. The Approving Authority must assess the notice and supporting material; approval obtained before notice is mechanical and contrary to the statutory scheme. Accordingly, the confirmed provisional attachment of the jewellery was set aside, while fresh proceedings in accordance with law and all available objections were left open.

Availability of an alternative statutory appellate remedy ordinarily warrants restraint in exercising writ jurisdiction, but does not create an absolute bar. Customs treatment of adult sex toys as prohibited goods may be challenged where no statutory or notification-based prohibition is identified and the classification is alleged to rest on subjective morality rather than objective law. Such allegations, given their effect on the right to trade, can justify writ scrutiny despite an appellate remedy. The merits of whether the goods are prohibited remain open.

Section 110(5) of the Customs Act limits provisional attachment of a bank account to six months, with only one further extension of up to six months based on written reasons communicated before the original period expires. A show-cause notice or pending adjudication cannot independently prolong attachment beyond that statutory maximum. Once the period ends, the attachment ceases by efflux of time and cannot be continued through administrative action. Continued freezing without statutory authority requires defreezing of the account, without limiting any other action permitted by law.

Foreign Trade Policy transitional arrangements for restricted gold imports may protect bona fide pre-notification transactions even where no irrevocable commercial letter of credit was established. An irrevocable commercial letter of credit secures payment through an independent banking mechanism upon shipping documents, but advance payment exceeding 90% of invoice value may provide the foreign seller with greater security. Mechanical insistence on a letter of credit can defeat the protective purpose of the transitional arrangement where traders and transactions are genuine. Notifications issued as delegated legislation ordinarily operate prospectively unless retrospective operation is statutorily authorised. Transitional benefits were extended to the specified import transactions.

Reasonable belief based on definite material existing at seizure is a precondition to seizing gold outside a Customs station and to shifting the statutory burden of proving its non-smuggled character. The absence of foreign markings, the gold's purity, and lack of evidence of foreign origin, illicit importation, or the manner of smuggling cannot support that belief; domestic-procurement documents must be rebutted through investigation. On these principles, confiscation was set aside and related penalties did not survive. Reliance on witness statements under Section 138B did not invalidate adjudication where no specific request for cross-examination had been made before the adjudicating authority.

Strict interpretation of the customs exemption required Disc Brake Units and Pole Wheels to fall clearly within the recognised railway-engineering meaning of a Train Protection and Warning System (TPWS). As components of a mechanical or pneumatic axle-mounted braking system, rather than signal-based TPWS equipment, they did not qualify for concessional duty. Official railway specifications prevailed over contrary technical opinions. Differential customs duty could be demanded only for Bills of Entry within the normal limitation period invoked under section 28(1); extending the demand beyond that period under section 28(4) exceeded the show cause notice. The exemption claim failed, while the demand was restricted accordingly.

Third-party standing extends to a holder of railway-underpass rights whose infrastructure may suffer adverse civil consequences from revived pipeline works. Way Leave Permission for overhead construction requires consideration of safety impacts, a due safety audit, and an opportunity to be heard where objections affect existing underpasses; non-compliance renders the grant irregular and illegal. An expired railway-land permission cannot be retrospectively renewed or preserved through a corporate insolvency resolution plan, as renewal requires fresh permission from the competent authority. Findings of fraud or collusion require proper material meeting the beyond-reasonable-doubt standard and cannot rest on the balance of probabilities.

Section 96 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code imposes an interim moratorium on civil debt-recovery actions, not on criminal prosecution for cheque dishonour under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act. Cheque-dishonour proceedings protect the credibility of negotiable instruments and commercial discipline and therefore continue despite insolvency proceedings against the accused. On that basis, the stay of the cheque-dishonour complaint was set aside and the complaint was restored to the Trial Court for continuation in accordance with law.

Limitation for appeals under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code requires filing within 30 days of the impugned order. The appellate forum may condone delay only for a further period not exceeding 15 days on sufficient cause and has no jurisdiction to entertain an appeal beyond that maximum period. Availability of the order in the public domain on the date of pronouncement defeats a contrary assertion of delayed upload, while unsupported claims regarding delayed receipt of a certified copy do not establish sufficient cause. Knowledge of the order is not an independent basis for extending limitation under the insolvency regime. An appeal filed beyond the maximum condonable period against revival of the corporate insolvency resolution process is therefore not maintainable.

Discharge-stage scrutiny in a money-laundering prosecution is confined to whether the available material creates a strong suspicion reasonably connecting the accused with the alleged offence; it does not permit a roving enquiry or trial-level weighing of evidence. Statements indicating that funds were arranged and delivered at a co-accused's request, rather than through ordinary business, together with the absence of contemporaneous proof of goods supplied, supported the allegation. Bank records and statements from persons involved in arranging and delivering cash provided prima facie corroboration that the accused knowingly assisted a process connected with proceeds of crime. The High Court upheld refusal of discharge and dismissed the criminal revision.

Recipient-funded renovation and development expenditure is excluded from the taxable value of renting of immovable property where it is incurred independently, is neither routed through nor controlled by the service provider, and lacks a nexus with the renting service. Service tax remains payable only on the actual rental consideration received. Where tax on that actual consideration and applicable interest are paid before issuance of a show-cause notice, penalties for failure to self-assess and for suppression under sections 77(2) and 78 of the Finance Act, 1994 are not sustained.

Rupee depreciation continued for a seventh consecutive session, with the currency closing weaker against the US dollar amid overseas dollar strength and foreign fund outflows. Elevated crude oil prices and rising US Treasury yields increased pressure by raising importers' demand for dollars, while positive domestic equity markets limited the decline. Dollar strength reflected expectations of a US interest-rate increase, while domestic equity gains contrasted with net foreign institutional investor equity sales.

Challenges concern termination of Delhi Gymkhana Club's perpetual lease and a show-cause notice seeking eviction. The Government maintains that a member who is not party or privy to the bilateral lease has no personal estate in the land or right to restrain contractual resumption. It also contends that the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act bars civil-court eviction proceedings and injunctions against estate-officer action. The challengers seek a stay or status quo, arguing that the notice prematurely assumes valid lease termination.

Vehicle repossession by banks and non-banking financial companies must be lawful and fair despite contractual self-help repossession rights. Lenders and recovery agents must not use force, stealth, intimidation, harassment, or arbitrary methods. Legally valid repossession clauses must provide notice periods, lawful possession procedures, a final repayment opportunity, and sale or auction processes. Financial institutions must ensure recovery-agent compliance and prevent unlawful dispossession of borrowers from hypothecated vehicles.