Section 129(3) requires a penalty notice within seven days of detention or seizure and a penalty order within seven days from service of notice. These sequential periods are mandatory restraints on coercive detention and penalty powers, not procedural formalities. A timely notice cannot cure a delayed order, and release against security, lack of prejudice, administrative circumstances, or a taxpayer's request for time do not extend limitation. An underlying e-way bill contravention may justify proceedings, but cannot validate a penalty order made after the statutory period.

Withdrawal of a tendered resignation depends on competent acceptance, subsequent ratification where initial acceptance lacked authority, and the parties' conduct. Ratification by the legally empowered authority relates back and cures the initial defect. Resignation may become irrevocable where the employee sought early release, accepted final settlement and no-dues formalities, and entered subsequent employment. Although withdrawal before actual relieving is ordinarily recognised, the competent authority may refuse it for recorded and communicated reasons, including a rational finding that the request was opportunistic.

GST classification of a Wind Turbine Generator turns on whether it remains movable goods despite installation on an earth-embedded foundation. Attachment for stability, safety or operational efficiency is functional and does not alone establish immovability. Where the turbine can be dismantled, transported, re-erected and used without losing identity or marketability, the foundation and turbine must be treated separately. Since works contract classification is confined to immovable property, naturally bundled supply, erection, installation and commissioning of a movable turbine may be treated as composite supply, with tax treatment following the principal supply.

Composite supply requires multiple taxable supplies that are naturally bundled, supplied together in the ordinary course of business, and include a principal supply. It is taxed as the principal supply. Mixed supply consists of independent supplies made together for a single price where composite-supply conditions are absent, and it is taxed at the highest applicable rate. Classification turns on commercial substance, including customer expectations, industry practice, contractual terms, independent utility, and whether components are ancillary. Businesses should identify each component, test natural bundling and principal supply, then assess mixed-supply treatment only where the composite-supply test fails.

Plastic-pollution reduction requires prevention at the point of consumption through refusal of unnecessary single-use plastic, reduced packaging, reuse of durable alternatives, non-littering and source segregation. Public spaces are shared spaces, making responsible disposal a civic duty rather than a task left solely to municipal workers or sanitation staff. Families, schools, communities and businesses can promote reusable products, practical environmental education, packaging reduction and waste recovery. Municipal systems must provide collection, bins, segregation, recycling and managed processing, supported by fair anti-littering enforcement, education and awareness.

ISO/IEC 27001:2022 requires an Information Security Management System based on confidentiality, integrity, availability, risk-based management and continual improvement. Organisations must define ISMS scope, assess assets, threats, vulnerabilities and risks, select treatment options, establish leadership accountability and implement suitable organisational, people, physical and technological controls. Performance is assessed through monitoring, internal audits, risk reviews and management reviews, followed by corrective action. Certification commonly includes gap analysis, implementation, training, internal audit, management review, remediation and staged external audit, with ongoing surveillance supporting continued compliance.

Assignment of an entire long-term leasehold interest in an industrial plot is a transfer of an immovable-property interest, not renting or another taxable service. Leasehold rights are benefits arising out of land, and an assignee who takes the whole interest steps into the original lessee's position. Schedule II only classifies an activity after it qualifies as supply and cannot create taxability. The original lease grant, permission charges for assignment, and consideration paid for the assignment are distinct transactions requiring separate GST analysis.

GST Time of Supply determines when tax liability arises, affecting reporting, payment, applicable rate, input tax credit timing and interest exposure. For goods, the earliest of invoice issuance, the last permissible invoice date or payment receipt generally governs. Services depend on invoice date, service provision and payment receipt. Reverse charge shifts liability to the recipient under separate timing rules. Vouchers, continuous supplies, advances and rate changes require specific analysis. Accurate invoices, contracts, payment records and reconciliations are essential to prevent short payment, interest and reporting disputes.

GST Place of Supply determines where a supply is deemed to occur and whether CGST with SGST/UTGST or IGST applies. Analysis must identify the taxable supply, its character as goods or services, supplier and recipient locations, and whether the transaction is domestic, cross-border, import-related, or export-related. Goods and services follow different general and special rules. After determining Place of Supply, comparison with the supplier's location generally establishes intra-State or inter-State character. Proper contractual, delivery, transport, registration, and service records are essential to support classification, tax treatment, zero-rating, input tax credit, and compliance.

Pan masala packaging is proposed to be limited to paper, paperboard, cellulose, wholly plastic-free naturally derived materials, tin and glass, while excluding synthetic polymers, copolymers, laminates, aluminium foil and metallised layers. The measure remains a draft amendment and is not immediately enforceable until finalised. Paper-based appearance alone will not establish compliance: manufacturers must assess all coatings, adhesives, barrier layers and other components. Extended Producer Responsibility compliance does not legalise packaging prohibited by material restrictions. Alternative packaging must remain safe for food contact and preserve product integrity.

Inherent quashing jurisdiction should not be used to terminate cheque dishonour prosecutions where the complaints prima facie establish the statutory ingredients and defences concerning security cheques, coercion, liability, notice service or settlement require evidence. At an advanced evidentiary stage, resolving such disputes would amount to a mini trial; factual defences remain for the Trial Magistrate. Separate complaints based on separate demand notices for dishonoured cheques are maintainable, while a consolidated notice may support a combined complaint. Non-disclosure in income-tax returns and breach of cash-transaction restrictions do not by themselves rebut the statutory presumption or render the underlying debt unenforceable; fiscal contraventions attract prescribed penalties.

Interim moratorium under Section 96 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code applies only to proceedings concerning the personal debt of an individual undergoing insolvency resolution. A company's debt remains distinct from its directors' personal debts because of its separate legal identity. Directors and responsible persons may face prosecution for cheque dishonour under Sections 138 and 141 of the Negotiable Instruments Act through statutory vicarious liability, which does not change the corporate character of the underlying debt. Such prosecution is penal rather than merely debt-recovery action and is not stayed by the personal insolvency moratorium. A possible moratorium on compensation recovery does not justify suspension of the criminal trial.

Statutory interest on a delayed refund remains payable after the principal refund has been released. Clearance of the principal amount resolves only the refund claim, while the ascertainable release date enables quantification of interest under the applicable refund rule. The interest must therefore be calculated and released to the assessee.

Cenvat credit on fuel oil received under duty-paid invoices cannot be denied where the recipient establishes receipt, accounting and use in manufacture. The recipient is not required to reassess whether the supplier's activity amounted to manufacture or the supplier's duty liability. Credit disclosed in ER-1 returns negates suppression of facts, so extended limitation cannot be invoked on that basis. The excise-duty demand is consequently unsustainable both on substantive entitlement to credit and limitation.

CENVAT credit of service tax paid for transporting fly ash from a captive thermal power plant to an ash pond is admissible where electricity generated by the plant is used to manufacture dutiable final products. Fly ash arises from that electricity generation, and its transportation and disposal constitute necessary environmental-compliance activities connected with manufacturing operations. Clearance of fly ash on payment of excise duty further supports the nexus with dutiable production. The same rationale applies consistently to subsequent periods where the issue has been resolved on identical facts.

Cenvat credit on input services remains admissible where service-provider invoices are issued to the head office, despite its lack of Input Service Distributor registration, if receipt and accounting of the services can be verified. Rule 9 of the Cenvat Credit Rules, 2004 permits verification notwithstanding defects in invoice particulars. During the relevant period, no requirement mandated proportionate distribution of credit through a registered Input Service Distributor. Absence of such registration was therefore a procedural irregularity where it produced no unintended credit benefit or revenue loss, making denial of credit solely on that basis unsustainable.

Service classification turned on the dominant nature of the composite contract: excavation, earthwork, transportation, filling, dozing, compacting, dust suppression and rock handling were treated as Site Formation and Clearance Service rather than Works Contract Service. A sub-contractor supplying taxable services to a main contractor bears an independent service-tax liability, notwithstanding the main contractor's payment of tax on the contract value or availability of input credit. However, an interpretative controversy over taxation of sub-contractor services, absent cogent evidence of wilful suppression or deliberate misstatement, precludes use of the extended limitation period. Recovery was therefore barred by limitation despite the underlying tax liability.

Services performed by an Indian branch for external commercial borrowing facilities booked by its Singapore head office were not intermediary services. As the branch and head office were the same legal person, their internal activities could not constitute services between separate persons. Intermediary status also requires three parties, an identifiable main supply between two principals, and a distinct ancillary facilitation service. The Indian office undertook origination, structuring, credit assessment and monitoring on its own account, while the head office contracted for and bore the credit risk. Its remuneration was not consideration for facilitating supplies to borrowers. Rule 3 governed place of provision, rather than Rule 9(c), so no service-tax liability or consequential penalties arose.

Service tax liability on fees charged as "Standard & Labelling" and "Processing Fee" was examined under Technical Inspection and Certification Service as defined in the Finance Act, 1994. The Tribunal had relied on an earlier decision that was not challenged and had attained finality. Consequently, the appeal against the service tax treatment of those fees was dismissed.

Referral charges earned for promoting and marketing vehicle-loan and insurance facilities, including informing dealers and customers and facilitating customer referrals, fall within taxable Business Auxiliary Service under the Finance Act, 1994. Service tax therefore remains payable on that consideration. Where the entire short-paid service-tax liability is discharged before issuance of a show-cause notice, the pre-notice payment framework requires that notice not be issued. Uncertainty over the taxability of referral income explained its non-disclosure in returns; consequently, penalty for suppression under the Finance Act, 1994 cannot be sustained and is set aside.