Municipalities' service-tax liability for renting immovable property requires fresh adjudication where jurisdictional High Court rulings on local-authority taxability reflect divergent views and related appeals remain pending. Judicial discipline and consistency with an earlier decision require the adjudicating authority to re-examine the Municipality's taxability rather than retain the appellate determination. The impugned appellate order was set aside, and the issue was remanded for a fresh decision.

Ex parte assessment and appellate treatment of cash deposits under Sections 68 and 115BBE require fresh determination where the taxpayer has not received an effective opportunity to establish the deposits' source. Deposits claimed as service charges from a material-handling and transportation business were supported by regular banking entries and certain invoices, but complete evidence on the source of funds and capital introduction was not available before the lower authorities. Adequate hearing and opportunity to produce complete evidence are necessary before deciding whether the deposits constitute unexplained cash credits and attract the prescribed tax treatment.

Employees' provident fund contribution disallowance under section 36(1)(va) requires consideration of a rectified tax-audit annexure correcting typographical errors in the originally reported payment due dates. Where the rectified annexure is placed before the appellate authority but remains unexamined, the payment details require verification after adequate opportunity is afforded. The disallowance cannot be sustained without considering and verifying the corrected audit material, and the claim requires fresh adjudication by the Assessing Officer.

Reassessment notices issued more than three years after the end of the relevant assessment year require prior approval from the authorities specified under section 151(ii): the Principal Chief Commissioner, Principal Director General, Chief Commissioner, or Director General. Approval by a Principal Commissioner does not meet this mandatory jurisdictional requirement. Consequently, a notice under section 148 issued with such approval is invalid, and the consequential reassessment order under section 147 is liable to be quashed.

Penalty for concealment of income or furnishing inaccurate particulars does not arise where prior-period expenses were disclosed in the return, added back in the income computation, and tax was paid after that disallowance. A data-entry error in the returned-income figure did not negate the correct computation and tax particulars or establish concealment. Mere making of an incorrect claim, without concealment of income or furnishing inaccurate particulars, does not attract penalty. The penalty was therefore not leviable.

Further relief from an estimated net-profit addition was considered after rejection of the books of account. The decline in net profit had already been partly accepted as explained by reduced handling charges, higher salary expenses and balances written off. Claimed variations relating to rent, VAT, depreciation, finance charges, interest on fixed deposits and incentives supported additional relief from the residual estimated addition.

Revision of unabated assessments completed under section 153A cannot rest solely on bank-account credits where no incriminating material was found during the search. For search assessments, incriminating material is necessary to disturb an unabated assessment; bank statements alone do not support revisional jurisdiction under section 263. The section 263 revision orders were therefore without jurisdiction and quashed for all relevant assessment years.

Penalty for non-compliance with notices under Section 142(1) is not sustainable where reasonable cause is established. Notices sent to the auditor's email address did not come to the elderly taxpayer's knowledge, and the faceless assessment environment supported the existence of reasonable cause for the failure to respond. The penalty imposed under Section 272A(1)(d) was therefore deleted.

Condonation of bona fide delay in appeals challenging late fees for delayed TDS statements filed before 1 June 2015 should favour substantial justice where the levy is prima facie without jurisdiction under binding jurisdictional decisions. A pragmatic rather than technical approach is appropriate when taxpayers act promptly after learning of those decisions. Appeals rejected solely as time-barred should be restored for merits adjudication where limitation prevented examination of the challenge.

Reassessment initiated after an assessee's death is invalid where the Assessing Officer had been informed of the death and neither substituted the legal heir nor proceeded against the estate through that heir. Completing reassessment in the deceased person's name amounts to proceedings against a non-existent person. The reassessment proceedings and resulting order were quashed, and the proposed addition consequently did not survive.

Post-amendment section 80JJAA extends to additional employees and does not require engagement as regular workmen. Fixed-term personnel deputed to customers remain employees of the staffing provider where it retains appointment, remuneration, deployment, disciplinary and termination powers, and fulfils tax-withholding and social-security obligations; customer supervision at its premises is operational only. A marginal Covid-period delay in filing Form 10DA may not defeat the deduction where the reporting requirement is treated as directory. Second- and third-year claims require verification of statutory conditions. Transfer-pricing comparables require functional similarity and adequate segmental information, including for KPO, IT and ITeS providers.

Land acquisition compensation for parcels in the same village and acquired for the same project is aligned with the rate determined for similarly situated lands in connected proceedings. The applicable valuation is Rs.105 per square foot, together with admissible solatium and statutory interest. Interest is excluded for the period attributable to delay in filing the appeals.

Section 5 of the Limitation Act permits equitable condonation of delay on sufficient cause, particularly where a landowner's ability to obtain fair compensation engages property protection under Article 300-A. Personal hardship, medical treatment and financial distress may support condonation even after substantial delay. Compensation parity requires similarly situated landowners, whose comparable lands are acquired under the same acquisition for the same purpose, to receive the same compensation rate notwithstanding separate adjudication of their claims. Statutory solatium and interest may accompany the enhanced compensation, while interest can be excluded for the period attributable to delayed pursuit of the claim.

Interest awarded on enhanced compensation for compulsory land acquisition under Section 28 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, is treated as an accretion to the value of the acquired land and forms part of enhanced compensation. It is distinct from interest for delayed payment under Section 34, which becomes payable after compensation is determined. Consequently, no tax deduction at source is applicable to enhanced compensation, including the Section 28 interest component payable to landowners.

CENVAT credit is admissible for duty-paid capital goods received in a manufacturer's factory and used to install a captive cogeneration power plant essential to producing finished goods. Rule 2(a) requires use of specified capital goods in the factory, not ownership by the manufacturer at receipt or direct procurement in its own name. Procurement through an EPC contractor does not break the nexus between the goods and manufacture where invoices show the manufacturer as consignee. Subsequent incorporation of the goods into an immovable plant also does not bar credit. Recovery, interest and penalty based on denial of such credit are unsustainable.

Rule 3(5A) of the CENVAT Credit Rules, 2004 requires payment of an amount equal to duty leviable on the transaction value when capital goods on which CENVAT credit was availed are cleared as waste and scrap. This obligation arises from the availment of credit and applies independently of whether the scrap was manufactured by the assessee or is separately classifiable under a tariff entry. The same principle applies under the materially similar predecessor provision. Consequently, clearance of such waste and scrap attracts duty based on transaction value.

Erection services undertaken before 10.09.2004 were outside the service-tax levy, as taxability of erection service commenced with commissioning and installation service from that date; consideration for pre-taxability work was therefore exempt. For 2004-05 and 2005-06, where short-paid tax had already been discharged, a residual demand could not be sustained without established suppression of material facts. Information available from the assessee's own records did not support invocation of the extended limitation period. Consequently, no further service tax was recoverable on the impugned demand, and related interest and penalty did not survive.

Supply of tangible goods service applies to wet leasing of CNG compressors and related equipment where the supplier installs, operates and maintains the equipment, provides personnel and spares, and retains possession, command, management and effective control. A transfer of the right to use goods, constituting a deemed sale, requires transfer of both possession and effective control; payment of sales tax does not alter the arrangement's service-tax character. Extended limitation may apply where contractual terms and applicable tax clarifications establish taxability, but the supplier suppresses material facts with intent to evade service tax.

Section 72 best-judgment assessment must rest on available, verifiable records and cannot substitute arbitrary growth, pro-rata or peak-turnover estimates for audited accounts and statutory returns. Gross receipts require transaction-level verification before exempt, export/SEZ, non-taxable and reimbursable amounts are included in taxable value; genuine pre-14 May 2015 reimbursements not constituting consideration are excludible, while later claims must meet pure-agent requirements. CENVAT credit requires verification of invoices, ledgers and statutory records. Extended limitation requires deliberate suppression with intent to evade and cannot exceed five years. Overlapping liabilities in parallel investigations must be identified and excluded to prevent duplicate demand or recovery.

Maintenance and repair activities involving transfer of property in goods taxable as a sale, supported by consumption records and VAT payment, fall within composite works contracts rather than taxable management, maintenance or repair services. The goods component cannot be subjected to service tax, making denial of abatement and related tax, interest and penalties unsustainable. Electricity supplied to individual flat owners for consideration is goods sold, not a service, and the related receipts fall outside the service-tax charge.