Cheating by dishonest inducement requires a fraudulent or dishonest false representation intended to deceive, followed by the complainant acting on it through delivery of property or the requisite harm. Criminal conspiracy requires proof beyond reasonable doubt of an agreement or prior meeting of minds to commit an illegal act or a lawful act by illegal means; suspicion, association, or relationship is insufficient. Where directors are accused of corporate misconduct, cogent evidence must distinguish their individual dishonest acts, participation, or benefit from the roles of directors who were not prosecuted. Unsupported allegations of collateral security or mortgage creation do not establish dishonest inducement or conspiracy.

Customs officers intercepted an arriving passenger at the green channel on intelligence inputs and examined baggage after X-ray screening indicated suspicious images. The examination recovered two oval capsules containing gold paste concealed in the baggage. Interrogation indicated that an alleged receiver was waiting outside the airport to collect the suspected smuggled gold. Customs officers apprehended the alleged receiver, and further investigation remains underway.

Provincial control over alcohol distribution remains distinct from federal trade-making authority. Quebec retains authority over whether United States alcohol is offered through its government-controlled liquor distribution system, despite lacking a veto over a bilateral trade agreement. Federal requests to restore United States alcohol to retail shelves cannot compel provincial action. Proposed trade commitments also concern restrictions on United States agricultural products and Canada's dairy import regime, which applies lower tariffs within designated import volumes and higher duties beyond those volumes.

Electoral-roll special intensive revision recorded no reported cases of Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Iranian nationals obtaining Aadhaar cards, ration cards, other government benefits, or voter registration. Illegal immigrants are identified through police monitoring, intelligence measures, specialised operations and a Special Task Force. Overstayers are recorded through the District Police Module and Foreigners Identification Portal and produced before Foreigners Regional Registration Officer authorities. Persons found to be residing illegally are reported to the concerned central divisions, proceeded against through registered cases, retained pending case disposal and exit permits, and subjected to deportation steps.

Raw sugar imports are permitted duty-free under a tariff rate quota until 31 October 2026, with online allocation to eligible millers and refiners having functional refining capacity. Applicants must provide a refining-capacity declaration and supporting Consent to Operate; preference applies to importers undertaking timely completion of imports, while non-utilisation or failure to surrender allocations constitutes non-compliance. Bulk sugar consumers meeting the prescribed consumption threshold are subject to a stock cap of 15 days' consumption from 1 September to 30 November 2026.

Duty-free import of 10 lakh metric tonnes of raw sugar is permitted under a tariff rate quota until 31 October 2026. The import-policy measure seeks to increase domestic raw-sugar availability and restrain rising local prices amid reduced opening stocks. Price-containment measures also include a stockholding limit for bulk consumers using more than 10 tonnes of sugar monthly, restricting holdings to 15 days' consumption.

Derivative-trading ledger credits were assessable only to the established profit element, not on a peak-credit basis. Reconciled STCSH metal, cash and premium entries, foreign-account KYC declarations, cheque transactions, RAK Bank remittances, dairy-farm receipts, excess bullion stock and advance notings lacked evidence of unaccounted income or would have caused double taxation; the related additions were deleted. Interest expenditure remained allowable because diversion of borrowed funds for non-business purposes was not proved. Notional rental income and premature unit-linked insurance policy surrender proceeds remained taxable. Unexplained non-settlement credits in the Standard Bank cash ledger remained taxable under Section 69A because their source and claimed third-party ownership were unsupported.

Unexplained income from share sales cannot rest on aggregate opening-and-closing holding differences without scrip-wise valuation, reliable computation, independent enquiry, or supporting evidence; the addition is deleted. Dividend income is taxable only where the assessee is the registered shareholder and the income is actually receivable; departmental holding data, public dividend declarations, and another person's dividend ratio cannot support an estimate, so the addition is deleted. Consistency requires allowance of interest on borrowed funds where identical claims succeeded in prior years and no distinguishing facts arise. Assessed income must be recomputed accordingly.

Interest expenditure covered by a valid Form 26A could not be disallowed under section 40(a)(ia) where the payee certified payment of tax on that interest income. The certification established tax payment on a substantial part of the interest, and a difference between the certified amount and the total interest debited did not justify rejecting the certificate absent any finding that it was false or incorrect. Accordingly, the disallowance was deleted to the extent supported by Form 26A.

Cash deposits made during demonetisation were explained by customer advances recorded in the books and cash recoveries from existing debtors relating to previously reported sales. Accepted customer advances constituted an available cash source, while debtor recoveries represented realisation of disclosed sales. Sufficient cash balances recorded in the cash book supported the deposits. On these facts, the deposits were not treated as unexplained money, and the additions were deleted.

Cash receipt of advances previously paid by the assessee constitutes repayment of advances, not acceptance of loans or deposits. The statutory scheme separately governs prohibited cash acceptance and prohibited cash repayment of loans, deposits or specified advances. Where the assessment record treated the receipt as cash repayment of earlier advances and that factual position remained uncontroverted, the receipt could not attract the penalty provision for accepting loans or deposits in cash. The penalty rested on an incorrect factual characterisation and was therefore unsustainable and deleted.

Prior-period income must receive corresponding relief in computing book profit under Section 115JB where an adjustment made while implementing an appellate order produces double taxation. Since the related prior-period expenditure issue for the same assessment year required fresh verification, the computation must be recomputed consistently with the applicable judicial position. Relief for the prior-period income is therefore allowable in the book-profit calculation.

Cash deposits in a proprietary trading business bank account were supported by the nature of cash sales and purchases and by evidence of continuing cash availability in preceding and succeeding years. Failure to maintain regular books of account did not by itself justify disregarding the business evidence. The deposits were therefore not treated as unexplained money, and the proposed addition was unsustainable.

Rectification relief granted under section 154 against an intimation issued under section 143(1)(a) rendered unnecessary further adjudication of the appeal challenging the CIT(A)'s remand for reconsideration. Since the assessee had already obtained relief in the appeal concerning the rectification order, the challenge relating to the original intimation became infructuous and was dismissed.

Subscription charges for access to Chemical Abstract Service databases and publication content are not royalty where customers may only search, view, display or print material for personal use. Customers receive no copyright rights or authority to reproduce, amend, exploit or commercially distribute the content, and have no access, control or dominion over the overseas servers. Such receipts constitute consideration for copyrighted articles, not for copyright, industrial, commercial or scientific experience, or equipment. Accordingly, the charges fall outside royalty treatment under Section 9(1)(vi) of the Income-tax Act and Article 12(3) of the India-US DTAA.

Rental income from an administrative building remains taxable as income from house property where the property, letting arrangement and activities remain unchanged and prior treatment was consistently accepted; accounting classification or occupant type does not alter its character. Sub-letting charges on materially identical facts are deductible. Interest on borrowed capital used for construction is allowable under the house-property provisions, subject to verification of the borrowing and its use. Expenditure relating to testing, miscellaneous and parking receipts requires factual verification of allowability and nexus. Storage-charge deductions require examination of the receipts' actual nature and whether they were received from members before determining eligibility.

Section 153C requires recorded satisfaction that seized material relates to the other person, bears on total income, and is linked to each relevant assessment year. Consolidated satisfaction notes without assessment-year-wise identification of material, or later departmental tabulations seeking to cure omissions, cannot sustain search assessments. Seized thittam books, tally printouts and loose papers require reliable, authenticated nexus to the relevant firm; common partners, inconsistent initials and uncorroborated entries do not establish unexplained income. Protective additions cannot rest on material belonging to separate concerns or unauthenticated loose sheets without independent corroboration. The enhanced Section 115BBE tax rate applies prospectively and not to transactions before 01.04.2017.

Article 10 of the India-Singapore Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement applies in preference to the domestic dividend tax rate under the Income-tax Act where its beneficial rate governs dividend remittances to a Singapore shareholder. Tax on the relevant dividend is chargeable at the treaty rate of 10%, rather than the domestic rate, favouring the taxpayer.

Tax deducted by an employer but not deposited cannot be enforced as a demand against the employee. Demands arising from the employer's failure to remit deducted tax were quashed, relieving the employee of the corresponding liabilities. Refunds due for later assessment years could not be adjusted against those unsustainable demands; amounts already set off were required to be refunded. The principle preserves the employee's credit for tax deducted at source and prevents recovery from the employee for the employer's default in depositing it.

Income-tax demands for the relevant assessment years were not recoverable from the assessee and therefore could not be adjusted against refunds. Recovery was stayed in the system, no further refund adjustments were permissible, and refunds previously adjusted against those demands were to be issued. The demands also had to be removed from the income-tax portal because their continued display was inconsistent with their non-recoverable status.