Maintains focus on the maintainability of an appeal from an ex parte ad interim order and a director's standing in corporate governance disputes despite lacking shareholding. It addresses the statutory meaning and removal of a director, the bar on civil court jurisdiction, and whether absence of locus before the NCLT permits recourse to civil courts. It also considers oppression and mismanagement remedies, waiver of eligibility conditions, and the requirements of a prima facie case, balance of convenience, irreparable injury, and clean hands for interim relief.

Penalty for abetment of attempted prohibited export requires admissible evidence of a positive act of assistance or knowing participation. The CESTAT Bangalore found no evidence that the exporter, its managing partner, employees, or the customs house agent loaded or tampered with the container, knew of substituted red sanders, or participated in clandestine stuffing; penalties were therefore set aside. Deficiencies in the confiscation order did not warrant remand because confiscation was unchallenged and no evidentiary basis existed to reconsider penalty against the customs house agent. The Department's appeal for de novo adjudication was dismissed.

Transfer of duty-free imported material to processors is not job work where they use independently procured principal inputs, issue tax invoices for intermediate goods, and adjust the imported material's value against the invoice price. Such arrangements constitute prohibited sale or transfer in breach of exemption conditions, supporting confiscation, duty recovery with interest, and penalty against the importing company. Import bonds remain enforceable until exemption conditions are fulfilled or the bonds are discharged; suppression of the sale as job work prevents the demand from being time-barred. A director knowingly involved in the diversion may be personally penalised under Section 112(a)(ii), with penalty reduced and its statutory basis specified.

Penalty under Section 112A cannot be sustained against a customs broker's G-card holder without evidence that the person knew of, abetted, committed, or omitted an act rendering restricted goods liable to confiscation. Returning import documents without clearing the goods after detecting a mismatch between the declared description and cargo, and informing Customs, did not establish such involvement. Cash credited to the account was explained as customs duty, transportation, and logistics expenses. The penalty was set aside.

Textile fabric cut into triangular umbrella panels is treated as a made-up textile article where it acquires the essential character and commercial identity of an umbrella panel. Section Note 7 to Section XI covers articles cut otherwise than into squares or rectangles, and the specific heading for made-up textile articles takes precedence over the general heading for woven synthetic filament fabrics. Extended limitation for differential customs duty requires established suppression or misdeclaration; where the goods and claimed classification were fully declared in Bills of Entry, a classification dispute alone does not justify its invocation. Reclassification, differential duty, interest and penalty are therefore unsustainable on these stated principles.

Simultaneous DEPB benefits and 7% brand rate drawback for the bus-body portion were permissible under the continuing simplified drawback dispensation without duty-paid documents, absent proof that both benefits reimbursed the same duty incidence. An unwithdrawn beneficial circular adopting the average drawback rate could not be curtailed by later clarifications imposing inconsistent conditions, rendering the denial and recovery unsustainable for the relevant period. Adjudicating authorities could nevertheless reopen drawback grants alleged to be contrary to law under the Drawback Rules. Recovery of wrongly paid drawback was governed by an independent mechanism and, although no specific limitation applied, had to commence within a reasonable time; the proceedings met that standard.

Customs-duty exemption for a diagnostic centre remained unavailable because the applicable notification conditions, including the inpatient-bed requirement, were undisputedly not met. DGHS communications expressing a view that diagnostic centres need not maintain beds, and seeking clarification or their inclusion, did not amend those binding conditions. Review on newly discovered material requires relevant evidence that was unavailable despite due diligence and could alter the judgment; it cannot be used to re-argue the merits. The communications therefore did not support review, and the review petition was dismissed.

Export prohibition on sugar, introduced in public interest to protect domestic availability, closing stocks and price stability, operates prospectively as a reasonable restriction and is not displaced by commercial hardship absent arbitrariness, perversity, mala fides or irrationality. Quota allocation under essential-commodity controls and export restrictions under foreign-trade law serve distinct purposes. Private export contracts, advance remittances and mill-level quota allocations do not create an enforceable right for merchant exporters to export after prohibition. Transitional exports require compliance with prescribed pre-existing irrevocable commercial letter of credit, registration and physical export-pipeline or export-clearance conditions. Promissory estoppel requires supporting material, while legitimate expectation cannot prevent a later public-interest policy change.

Supreme Court considered challenges to two CESTAT final orders arising from customs proceedings and found no good ground to interfere with them. The appeals were dismissed, leaving the CESTAT orders undisturbed. Any pending applications were also disposed of. The text does not state the underlying customs issue, legal reasoning, or substantive principles addressed in the CESTAT orders.

RTGS credits claimed as gold-sale proceeds were treated as a benami transaction because cash deposits in entities controlled by the alleged benamidar, subsequent credits after commission deductions, and banking records established routing of demonetised cash. The gold-sale explanation lacked independent support, with no established relationship with remitters and anomalous invoice rates and weights; the attachment was therefore sustained. Denial of cross-examination did not breach natural justice because no intermediary statement existed, the benamidar's statement was disclosed, and the appellant showed no actual prejudice despite corroborative material. In benami proceedings, cross-examination is not invariably required where disclosed evidence independently supports the transaction.

Rejection of a plaint under Order 7 Rule 11 CPC must rest solely on its averments and annexed documents. Pleadings that property acquired in a son's name came from joint family income and was held for the joint family do not, on their face, establish a benami transaction. The Benami Act excludes property held by a Karta or Hindu undivided family member for family benefit from known family sources, as well as property acquired in a child's name from known individual sources. A benami objection may be proved at trial but cannot justify threshold rejection unless the plaint plainly discloses a statutory benami transaction.

Arm's length remuneration paid to a dependent agent permanent establishment exhausts further profit attribution in India when it fully reflects the agent's functions, assets and risks. Additional attribution is permissible only if the transfer-pricing analysis is deficient or relevant functions or risks have not been priced. Where the enhancement rests solely on a revision order that has been quashed, the enhanced attribution is unsustainable. Profit voluntarily offered under the dual taxpayer approach remains chargeable, and the voluntarily offered attribution is to be accepted.

Registration under section 12AB and approval under section 80G granted pursuant to a binding jurisdictional High Court judgment cannot be made conditional on a proposed Supreme Court challenge. A jurisdictional High Court ruling remains binding on authorities within its territorial jurisdiction unless stayed, modified or reversed. A contemplated or pending challenge does not reduce that binding effect. No statutory mechanism permits the authority to qualify statutory recognition or consequential benefits through a caveat based on possible future developments. The caveats were therefore directed to be deleted, leaving the registration and approval effective without qualification.

Delay in filing quantum and penalty appeals may be condoned where the assessee was not effectively informed of assessment and penalty proceedings because notices were sent to an accountant's registered email and were not received at the relevant addresses. Prompt action after learning of the demand, including obtaining certified copies and filing appeals within thirty days, supports condonation. Dismissing appeals without requesting a condonation application or supporting evidence denies a meaningful opportunity to establish service and causes prejudice. During transition to faceless proceedings, procedural technicalities should not override substantial justice where no malice or gross negligence is apparent; the appeals were restored for merits adjudication after hearing both parties.

A trust may file a subsequent application for registration under Section 12AB despite unappealed rejection of earlier applications, as the Act imposes no express bar on a fresh application. Registration must be assessed by examining the genuineness of the trust's activities and compliance with laws relevant to its objects; earlier rejection does not extinguish the statutory entitlement to apply again. Any registration granted on the later application operates only from that application's date. The registration matter was restored for fresh determination after allowing submission of supporting material.

Leave fare concession reimbursements involving foreign travel, made while binding interim judicial directions restrained tax recovery from employees, are examined in relation to employer TDS obligations. Although such foreign travel was subsequently treated as outside the Section 10(5) exemption, the employer's Section 192 obligation depends on a bona fide estimate of taxable income when payment is made. Subsequent reversal or vacation of interim protection does not retrospectively create default for payments made in compliance with those directions. The first proviso to Section 201(1) also protects cases where employees account for the income and pay the tax.

Penalty for non-compliance with tax notices is not sustainable where the taxpayer establishes reasonable cause and the default is neither deliberate nor wilful. Notices sent to an inaccessible email account and not served at the business address did not come to the taxpayer's knowledge; the explanation was not found false or mala fide. Subsequent participation in assessment proceedings and absence of Revenue material showing contumacious conduct supported deletion of penalty. Penalty for non-compliance with a notice under section 143(2) was also unsustainable because the assessment order recorded no satisfaction regarding that default. Technical or venial breaches do not attract penalty where statutory reasonable-cause protection applies.

For capital-gains computation under a joint development agreement, deemed consideration is described as being based on the stamp-duty circle-rate-supported construction value rather than an estimated construction cost stated in the agreement. Residential flats allotted and retained by the taxpayer may qualify for capital-gains exemption where gains are taxed on deemed transfer before consideration is received, subject to verification of construction completion. Capital gains on later sale of those flats require recomputation after resolving the earlier exemption claim and cost of acquisition. Penalty for concealment cannot independently persist where the underlying addition is deleted or remains subject to fresh verification.

Delayed furnishing of Form 10DA does not by itself defeat a third-year employment-linked deduction where eligibility arose from employee costs accepted in earlier years and the report is later produced; the claim remains subject to factual verification of prescribed conditions. Notional interest on outstanding associated-enterprise receivables requires factual support for an arm's length financing charge, including evidence of financing cost, economic prejudice, or comparable independent-party practice. Where the taxpayer has sufficient own funds, no interest-bearing borrowings, and no such evidence, the adjustment is unsustainable.

Under TNMM, product-development expenditure for an unfinished product intended for the non-AE segment, with no related revenue or nexus to tested AE transactions, is treated as non-operating and excluded from operating cost. Acquisition and integration expenditure directed to non-AE business expansion, including due diligence, compliance, retention and consolidation costs, is likewise excluded where unconnected with AE software-development transactions. Internal TNMM is unsuitable where domestic non-AE transactions and export AE transactions lack sufficient comparability. The AE segment may instead be benchmarked against suitable external comparables, and exclusion of unrelated non-operating costs supports satisfaction of the arm's-length standard.