Captive contract software-development services are benchmarked against companies performing comparable software-development functions, assets and risks; product-development businesses, complex digital-product providers and companies lacking relevant segmental information are unsuitable. Companies earning software-development service revenue may remain comparable where no material functional difference is established, while entities exceeding the applicable related-party transaction filter must be excluded. Where delayed trade receivables arise solely from the service transaction benchmarked under TNMM, they require combined benchmarking. Working-capital adjustment for material differences subsumes the receivables effect, so separate notiona.....

Transfer-pricing benchmarking requires exclusion of comparables with financially illogical gross-profit-to-sales ratios of 100 per cent or more, applying the principle that super-profit-making companies should not be retained for comparability analysis. The inclusion of four such entities was set aside and remitted to the TPO for fresh consideration after hearing the assessee. A comparable could not be rejected for non-availability of its annual report where that report had been furnished to the TPO; its inclusion in the benchmarking exercise was directed. The TPO's positive gross-profit-margin computation for another comparable was also found erroneous because the record showed a negative margin, requiring fresh determination.

Penalty for misreporting under section 270A requires the revenue to identify and establish a statutory instance of misreporting. Transfer-pricing adjustments arising solely from rejection of the taxpayer's benchmarking methodology, economic or comparability analysis, and adoption of a different most appropriate method do not by themselves establish misreporting. Reporting international transactions in Form 3CEB and maintaining prescribed transfer-pricing documentation support the position that the transactions were disclosed. Where no failure to report an international transaction or other statutory misreporting circumstance is identified, the adjustment falls within the exclusion for eligible transfer-pricing adjustments and cannot attract misreporting penalty.

Section 80G approval turns on an institution's objects, beneficiaries and activities considered as a whole, rather than isolated spiritual or philosophical clauses. Disseminating Bhagavad Gita teachings alongside relief of poverty, medical relief, public welfare, libraries and reading rooms does not make a society wholly or substantially religious where membership and services are open to all communities. Religious-expenditure entries in Form 10AB that duplicated total audited expenditure, despite a declaration of no religious spending, were treated as an inadvertent data-entry error rather than a substantive admission. In any event, incidental religious expenditure below the five per cent statutory ceiling does not defeat eligibility. The rejection was set aside and approval was directed to be granted.

Penalty proceedings under section 271D for accepting cash loans contrary to section 269SS require a regular assessment or reassessment and the Assessing Officer's recorded satisfaction of the alleged contravention. Where neither scrutiny assessment nor reassessment had commenced and no satisfaction was recorded, the Tribunal quashed the proceedings. The approach follows High Court precedent that, without a regular assessment, recourse to comparable penalty proceedings under section 271E is unjustified. Both appeals were allowed.

TDS-default proceedings concerning commission paid to travel agents require verification of the actual commission amount and the tax-deduction obligation on payments to foreign agents without a permanent establishment in India. Although the appellate authority treated the objections as directed at the original TDS-default order rather than the rectification order, the rectification record included the assessee's submission that tax had already been deducted on part of the commission. The Tribunal restored the matter to the Assessing Officer for fresh verification, after a final opportunity for the assessee to substantiate its commission claim, and for decision in accordance with law.

Functional comparability governs selection of software development support service comparables. Entities undertaking enterprise transformation, software-product or diversified activities, onsite services, product development or research and development, without reliable segmental information, do not meet the benchmark for routine software development support services and are excluded. The functional profiles of two proposed comparables require fresh examination. Inclusion of another comparable depends on verification of its related-party transaction computation under the applicable filter. Weighted-average operating margins and working-capital adjustments for software development and sales and marketing support services require verification.....

Appeals against revision orders must identify a grievance with the revision itself. Grounds confined to a consequential assessment do not challenge the revision order. Where every ground targets only the consequential assessment, no maintainable challenge to the revision exists, and dismissal follows independently of any issue concerning delay in filing the appeal. This requirement ensures that appellate grounds correspond to the order purportedly under challenge rather than to a separate consequential assessment.

Related-party customs valuation requires objectively founded reasonable doubt before rejecting the declared transaction value. Non-disclosure of an exporter's Suggested List Price, without evidence that the discount was abnormal, artificial or relationship-driven, does not justify rejection where comparable export-country discounts and commercial normality are established. Any reassessment must follow the prescribed valuation methods sequentially; the residual method cannot use the exporter's domestic-market price. Royalty, technical assistance and know-how fees are includible only when they relate to imported goods and are payable as a condition of sale. Payments for Indian manufacturing technology, and discontinued notional management fees, are therefore excluded absent evidence of import-price adjustment.

Bulk drugs and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) may qualify as "All Drugs and medicines" for concessional IGST treatment where their character, intended use and statutory compliance bring them within the inclusive definition of "drug" under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. Classification under Customs Tariff Chapters 28 or 29 does not preclude coverage by the description-based drugs and medicines entry, which prevails over general entries for inorganic and organic chemicals. Imports for testing, clinical research, bioavailability or bioequivalence studies retain their pharmaceutical character. The concessional rate applies only if the particular bulk drug or API is not within the specified nil-rate exclusion.

Bulk drugs and active pharmaceutical ingredients qualify as "all drugs and medicines" for the specified IGST rate entry because the inclusive statutory definition of "drug" covers substances used as drug components. Their use in manufacture, testing, clinical trials, bioavailability studies or bioequivalence studies does not change their character as drugs. The description-based entry covers APIs even where classified under chemical chapters, and prevails over general chapter-based entries for organic and inorganic chemicals. Imports of bulk drugs or APIs therefore attract IGST at 5% under the relevant rate entry, unless they fall within the separate nil-rated entry.

Companies in liquidation must file annual or final accounts even where audited half-yearly accounts for both halves of the financial year have been filed. Half-yearly accounts must be merged into annual accounts because annual reporting is necessary to accurately disclose the companies' financial position. Exemption from filing annual or final accounts for the relevant financial year was therefore refused. The half-yearly accounts were accepted on record, and auditors' fees could be paid from available company funds or, subject to reimbursement, from the Estate and Establishment Fund.

Clean-hands requirements in PIL jurisdiction require complete disclosure of earlier similar proceedings to prevent parallel litigation and conflicting adjudication. Failure to disclose a pending writ petition seeking substantially overlapping relief concerning NSE shareholding and beneficial ownership was treated as suppression of material facts, forum shopping and abuse of process. The High Court dismissed the PIL at the threshold without examining divestment allegations and imposed exemplary costs, as the conduct disentitled the petitioner to equitable and extraordinary relief irrespective of the underlying merits.

Forfeiture of a successful bidder's part payment before expiry of an expressly extended period for paying the auction balance is arbitrary. A payment communication allowing payment beyond the original deadline with interest for up to 60 days made forfeiture operative only upon default continuing after that period. Discretion under the payment schedule to extend the timeline and the regulatory framework for delayed payment with interest did not permit earlier cancellation or forfeiture. Where the asset was subsequently sold and consideration realised, retention of the part payment was unjustified. The forfeiture was set aside to the extent of refunding the part payment without interest.

Provisional attachment of properties acquired from proceeds of crime may be sustained despite asserted prior sales, partial sales, or mortgages where recipients of funds from an accused entity cannot establish genuine business activity or an independent source for acquiring the properties. Properties traced to tainted funds through entities controlled by the accused remain subject to attachment. A person who has already sold a property has no subsisting interest to challenge its attachment; any purchaser may pursue an independent remedy. Mortgages do not by themselves require release of attached property, while any valid independent claim of a financial institution or other third party remains open.

Vicarious criminal liability of a non-signatory director for cheque dishonour requires specific allegations that, at the relevant time, the director was both in charge of and responsible for the company's business. Directorship alone does not establish liability. A complaint must disclose the director's role in day-to-day operations or financial transactions, or facts showing consent, connivance or neglect connected with the dishonoured cheque. Where the director was neither a party to the underlying agreement nor a cheque signatory and the complaint contains only general allegations, prosecution for cheque dishonour read with vicarious liability provisions cannot continue; the complaints and process were quashed against the director.

National Company Law Tribunal constituted a five-member bench after conflicting views on a personal insolvency repayment plan left no majority position for a formal order. The central issue is whether creditor approval of the plan binds dissenting creditors and extinguishes their claims against the personal guarantor. One view preserved dissenting creditors' independent recovery rights, while another applied the creditor-approved plan uniformly to all creditors. Disagreement also concerns the Adjudicating Authority's power to examine the resolution professional's report of the creditors' meeting.

Personal insolvency proceedings were referred for fresh adjudication because no majority emerged on the repayment plan. The Technical Member rejected the plan; the Judicial Member confined it to consenting creditors while preserving dissentents' recovery rights; and the Third Member approved it with uniform extinguishment of all creditors' claims. The dispute concerns whether creditor approval under section 115(1) binds dissenting creditors, the effect of section 79(2)(g), and the Adjudicating Authority's power to examine the Resolution Professional's creditors' meeting report.

Rupee exchange-rate movement reflected a recovery from early losses to close stronger against the US dollar, amid market expectations of Reserve Bank of India support at lower trading levels. Pressure arose from higher US Treasury yields, possible US rate-hike expectations and a broad dollar rally. Suspected intervention, FCNR(B)-related foreign-currency flows and the special USD-INR forex swap facility supported sentiment, while rising crude prices, geopolitical supply risks and foreign institutional equity outflows remained adverse factors.

Income-tax return filing for Assessment Year 2026-27 reaches its due date on 31 August 2026 for taxpayers having business or professional income who are not subject to audit. Such taxpayers may file the applicable ITR-3, ITR-4, ITR-5 or ITR-7. ITR-3 applies to individuals and Hindu Undivided Families with proprietary business or professional income, ITR-4 to small and medium taxpayers, and ITR-5 to firms, limited liability partnerships and cooperative societies.