Demand-specific finality may attach to the portion of an appellate order that sets aside a demand where that portion is no longer challenged, even though further appeal is proposed against the surviving liability. A statutory pre-deposit is security for the disputed demand, not tax. Accordingly, the proportionate pre-deposit attributable to a dropped and concluded demand cannot be withheld merely because another portion of the original demand remains under challenge. A further appellate pre-deposit obligation for the surviving demand operates independently of the refund due for the concluded portion.

GST cross-empowerment allows either Central or State GST administration to undertake intelligence-based investigation despite routine administrative allocation. The bar against parallel action applies only when a second show cause notice concerns the same subject matter. Summons, search and seizure are investigative measures, not initiation of barred proceedings. Identity requires the same factual tax liability or offence and the same demand or relief; similar input tax credit issues alone are insufficient. Taxpayers should comply with summons, disclose suspected overlap in writing, and compare the date, period, allegation and proposed demand in each show cause notice.

Section 136 of the CGST Act governs the evidentiary use of signed statements made on appearance pursuant to a Section 70 summons when their contents are relied upon to prove facts in a prosecution for an offence. Recording a statement does not by itself establish the truth of the underlying allegation. Where the maker is available, examination before the Court and a judicial opinion on admission are required. Where statements materially support an allegation, cross-examination, retraction, and independent corroboration affect their evidentiary weight.

Section 141 of the Negotiable Instruments Act requires specific averments before a company director can face vicarious criminal liability for cheque dishonour. The complaint must show that, when the offence occurred, the director was in charge of and responsible for the company's business, or that the offence resulted from the director's consent, connivance or neglect. Directorship alone does not create deemed liability. General allegations against all accused, without particulars of the director's day-to-day role or involvement in the cheque transactions, are insufficient; nor can process be sustained without addressing these statutory requirements.

Statutory pre-deposit must be furnished within the period expressly fixed by a coordinate-bench order where that order conditions restoration of an appeal on timely compliance and provides for revival of dismissal upon default. A delayed deposit does not warrant a further extension or a direction requiring the appellate authority to accept it, because such relief would defeat the binding terms imposed in the separate writ proceeding. The assessee was therefore not entitled to restoration through acceptance of the belated pre-deposit.

The special leave petition challenging a High Court judgment in a VAT and sales-tax dispute was dismissed after the Supreme Court declined to interfere. Delay in filing was condoned. The High Court judgment therefore remained undisturbed, and all pending applications were disposed of.

Threshing, cleaning, sieving and sizing dried broken raw tobacco leaves, followed by bulk packing, do not constitute manufacture because the processes neither produce a commodity with a distinct name, character or use nor alter the tobacco's essential identity. Deemed manufacture for tobacco covers labelling, relabelling, repacking from bulk to retail packs, or treatment that renders tobacco marketable to consumers. As the tobacco was already marketable, received no chemical treatment, flavouring, blending, branding or retail packing, and was packed only bulk-to-bulk, the activities do not fall within deemed manufacture. Central Excise duty is therefore not payable merely for these operations.

CENVAT credit is admissible on commission paid to a sole selling agent where the agent promotes sales and provides installation, commissioning and warranty-related after-sales services contractually connected with dutiable final goods. These services qualify as input services when they enhance the value of the goods, particularly where invoices identify commission for sales and the service tax treatment corresponds with the services supplied. Extended limitation cannot apply merely from ordinary business records; it requires evidence of suppression. A bona fide credit claim on an interpretative issue does not support invocation of the extended period. Consequently, denial of the disputed credit and the related demand are unsustainable on both merits and limitation.

Full recovery or payment of the amount required for pre-deposit satisfies the pre-deposit condition under Section 35F, even where compliance occurs after dismissal of the appeal. Dismissal for initial non-compliance should not permanently extinguish the statutory right of appeal once complete compliance is established and Revenue suffers no prejudice. Rule 41 permits restoration where required to secure the ends of justice. Appeals dismissed solely for failure to meet the pre-deposit condition must therefore be restored for adjudication on merits after the entire service-tax liability has been recovered or paid.

Rule 5 of the CENVAT Credit Rules, 2004 permits refund of accumulated CENVAT credit attributable to exported output services. Eligible exporters of software services remain entitled to refund of unutilised credit even where the exported software service is not taxable. Non-taxability of the exported service does not defeat the refund claim under Rule 5, including in relation to the taxable-service definition and Notification No. 18/2008-ST.

Penalty imposed in the assessee's capacity as partner of one entity had attained finality. A distinct penalty arising from the assessee's position as majority shareholder of the holding company of another entity was not covered by the existing remand direction, although that entity's matters had been sent for fresh consideration. The separate shareholder-related penalty is remitted to the adjudicating authority for de novo consideration together with the remanded matters of the relevant entity and connected entities.

Reverse-charge service tax on royalty under mining leases depends on when the Government's grant of mining rights was provided or agreed to be provided. Before 1 April 2016, Government services, including grants of rights in natural resources, were generally outside the taxable net under the negative-list regime; Government services supplied to business entities became taxable after that amendment. As the relevant mining lease agreements were not produced before the lower authorities, their terms require examination under applicable Tribunal decisions. The impugned order was set aside and the matter remanded for fresh adjudication.

Amounts written off as unclaimed vendor balances or other outstanding credits do not constitute consideration for tolerating an act under Section 66E(e) of the Finance Act, 1994 unless an independent express or implied contractual obligation requires one person to tolerate, refrain from, or perform an act for another and consideration flows for that obligation. Mere accounting write-back of lapsed balances as income does not establish a taxable service. The extended limitation period also requires evidence of a positive act to evade tax; absent such evidence or suppression of taxable activity, it cannot be invoked. Consequently, the service-tax demand, interest and penalty founded on such write-backs cannot be sustained.

Provisional attachment of properties acquired through layered diverted loan funds remained valid despite claims of prior sale or mortgage. Receipt of funds from the accused entity, without invoices, GST returns, income-tax returns, or evidence of genuine business activity or an independent acquisition source, supported treatment of the entities as shell companies used to layer proceeds of crime and acquire assets. A seller retaining no interest after an asserted sale could not challenge attachment; purchasers may pursue independent claims. Mortgages did not displace attachment, while mortgagees' claims remained open. Confirmation of the attachment, including for mortgaged and partly sold properties, was sustained.

Forfeiture of a successful auction bidder's part sale consideration before expiry of an extended payment period was inconsistent with liquidation-sale terms permitting delayed payment with interest. Regulation 33 and Schedule I contemplated payment beyond the original due date where an extension had been granted; cancellation and forfeiture during that period were therefore premature. Retaining the deposit after a subsequent higher-value sale would result in unjust enrichment. Section 74 of the Indian Contract Act did not support forfeiture before the modified payment period ended. The deposited sale consideration was refundable without interest.

Homebuyers' associations cannot independently intervene in an ongoing corporate liquidation as creditors to challenge a liquidator's proposed asset sale. Amended Section 21(11), applicable where no dissolution application has been filed, permits the committee of creditors to supervise the liquidator's conduct. Individual association members who qualify as stakeholders may independently seek intervention before the adjudicating authority under that framework. Consequently, intervention by the association is not maintainable, but member-stakeholders may file a fresh application before the NCLT.

Disclosure of previously instituted public interest proceedings is mandatory under the Delhi High Court (Public Interest Litigation) Rules, 2010. A PIL concerning NSE shareholding and beneficial-ownership disclosures substantially overlapped with an earlier undisclosed writ petition, despite an averment that no similar proceeding existed. Suppression of that material fact and the contrary sworn assertion constitute lack of candour, unclean hands, forum shopping and abuse of PIL jurisdiction. These defects disentitle the litigant to equitable writ relief irrespective of the merits of the underlying allegations, and warrant exemplary costs.

Section 551 of the Companies Act, 1956 requires an Official Liquidator to file annual or final accounts. Audited half-yearly accounts covering each half of a financial year do not substitute for an annual account because consolidation is necessary to present the correct financial position of companies in liquidation. Accordingly, exemption from filing annual or final accounts for financial year 2024-25 was refused despite the filing of audited half-yearly accounts.

Unsubstantiated claims that auctioned land is assigned land cannot justify summary resumption or interference with a court-supervised sale. Registered transactions, revenue mutations, long uninterrupted possession and industrial use may support the need for formal adjudication where title is disputed. The State cannot determine its own title and dispossess persons in long possession through administrative resumption proceedings; whether land was assigned and transfers warranted resumption must be resolved in appropriate proceedings. On the stated facts, interference with the confirmed auction sale was unsustainable, the Company Court's confirmation was revived, the purchaser's possession was protected, and the connected writ matter required fresh consideration on merits.

Bulk drugs and active pharmaceutical ingredients qualify as drugs under the description-based entry for all drugs and medicines, including when imported for manufacture, testing, clinical trials, bioavailability studies or bioequivalence studies. Their classification follows the statutory treatment of drug components and APIs as pharmaceutical substances used directly or as formulation ingredients. The phrase "or any Chapter" extends the entry beyond Chapter 30 to APIs classifiable under Chapters 28 and 29. The specific drugs entry prevails over general chemical entries, resulting in IGST at 5%, unless the goods fall within the applicable nil-rated entry.