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By: - YAGAY and SUN
ISO 45001:2018 establishes an Occupational Health and Safety Management System framework requiring organisations to identify workplace hazards, assess risks, implement controls, meet applicable legal obligations, promote worker participation and continually improve safety performance. Through the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle, organisations establish objectives and controls, provide resources and training, monitor incidents, inspections, compliance and audits, and address nonconformities through corrective action and management review. Operational measures may include safe procedures, engineering controls, personal protective equipment, contractor management, emergency preparedness and safe procurement.
By: - Dr. Sanjiv Agarwal
GST inspection, search and seizure require prescribed authorisation, seizure and prohibition forms, with inventory and custodial safeguards for seized goods. Provisional release requires a bond and bank-guarantee security covering applicable tax, interest and penalty; non-production permits encashment and adjustment. Perishable or hazardous goods may be released on payment of the lower of market price or tax, interest and penalty payable, while non-payment may result in disposal and adjustment of sale proceeds against dues.
By: - DEV KUMAR KOTHARI
Delayed deposit of Foreign Travel Tax is distinguishable from failure to pay where tax is remitted before a show-cause notice, even if deposited after the prescribed date. The statutory scheme separately imposes interest for delayed payment, while the penalty provision addresses failure to pay. Interest levied or paid for delay is treated as supporting an extended payment period. The prohibition of reformatio in peius prevents an appellant from being placed in a worse position merely for using an appeal or revision remedy.
Contractor material supplies become taxable sales when their value is recovered through deductions from final contractual payments.
Supply of cement and max fault to contractors, coupled with recovery of their value by deduction from final payments, constitutes a sale liable to tax. The governing principle treats the provision of materials to a contractor and corresponding adjustment against contractual dues as a sale transaction. The supplies were therefore taxable, and the issue was resolved against the assessee.
Input credit for construction steel requires item-wise reassessment under the applicable legal test for eligibility.
Eligibility of steel rods, TMT bars, plates, sheets, pipes, beams and structural steel used in factory construction, fabrication and erection depends on the applicable legal test for treating goods as inputs or capital goods. The governing Supreme Court ratio applies to the disputed materials. Because the original adjudication predated that ratio, each credit claim requires fresh item-wise examination against the applicable test, rather than a collective determination of eligibility.
Extended limitation cannot apply where prior Cenvat credit disclosures reveal material facts and later departmental letters add nothing new.
Extended limitation for recovery proceedings was unavailable because the assessee had already disclosed material facts on common inputs and input services and Cenvat credit availment. Departmental letters did not provide fresh information capable of supporting invocation of the extended period, and they were not part of the Tribunal's record. As limitation involved mixed questions of law and fact, the Tribunal's factual appreciation did not warrant interference within limited appellate jurisdiction. The limitation issue was resolved in favour of the assessee.
Statutory appeal limitation restricts condonation jurisdiction beyond the prescribed outer period, irrespective of merits of the underlying demand.
Section 85(3A) of the Finance Act, 1994 requires an appeal before the Commissioner (Appeals) to be filed within two months and permits condonation for sufficient cause only up to a further one month. This outer limitation restricts the appellate authority's jurisdiction, and the merits of the underlying demand cannot support condonation beyond it. Consequently, delay exceeding the maximum condonable period cannot be condoned, leaving the appeal outside the Commissioner (Appeals)' jurisdiction.
Extended limitation requires proven intent to evade; unreconciled turnover and directors' salary cannot sustain service-tax demands.
Extended limitation for service-tax demands requires deliberate suppression with intent to evade tax; discrepancies apparent from statutory financial records or Form 26AS, without corroborative evidence, do not meet that standard. Taxable turnover must be based on reconciled figures, and a demand alternating between balance-sheet and Form 26AS turnover without reconciliation lacks a sustainable basis. Directors' remuneration recorded, taxed and disclosed as salary falls within the negative-list exclusion from taxable service. Consequently, the tax demand, interest and penalties were legally unsustainable.
Revenue neutrality in reverse-charge taxation defeats extended limitation and suppression penalty, while verified unreconciled expenses remain taxable normally.
Reverse-charge service-tax liability may be determined from expense heads, accounting records, ST-3 returns, balance sheets and Form 26AS where returns do not reconcile and the taxpayer fails to furnish adequate particulars despite requisitions. The resulting demand remains confined to the normal limitation period, with applicable interest and recomputation of liability. Revenue neutrality arises where reverse-charge tax is fully available as Cenvat credit to the same taxable person, reducing forward-charge cash liability. That position negates the intent to evade required for extended limitation and the corresponding suppression penalty; however, any remaining penalty is retained.
GST appellate remedy requires Tribunal challenge within the prescribed window, with Section 74 issues reserved for appellate determination.
GST appellate remedy before the Tribunal was available within the prescribed filing window, subject to the statutory pre-deposit. The challenge to invocation of Section 74 was left for determination by the Tribunal rather than addressed in writ proceedings. The writ petition was disposed of with the petitioner directed to pursue the appellate remedy.
Prior appellate service-tax exemption determination bars duplicate demand and garnishee recovery for the same tax period.
Subsequent service-tax adjudication and garnishee recovery for a period already covered by an appellate determination could not stand. Works performed exclusively for Government Departments were treated as exempt under Notification No. 25/2012-S.T., and the services also fell within the small-scale service-provider exemption under Notification No. 33/2012-S.T. The earlier appellate determination found no taxable service, return-filing liability, sustainable demand, or late fee, and resulted in refund of the deposited amount. Reliance on income-tax returns and Form 26AS could not support a later demand for the same period. The subsequent order-in-original and recovery notice were set aside.
Service-tax classification and taxability disputes must reach the Supreme Court, leaving High Court appeals non-maintainable.
Appeals involving determination of service-tax liability or classification of taxable services must be filed before the Supreme Court under section 35L of the Central Excise Act, 1944, as applied to service tax through section 83 of the Finance Act, 1994. Where the dispute concerns taxability of royalty under intellectual property rights and service classification, the High Court lacks appellate jurisdiction. The statutory remedy lies exclusively before the Supreme Court, rendering an appeal before the High Court not maintainable.
Pre-deposit compliance permits restoration requests after portal payment, while DRC-03 refund claims require separate applications.
Pre-deposit compliance was addressed where appeals had been dismissed for failure to meet the prescribed requirement. The writ petitions were disposed of with liberty to make the required pre-deposit through the prescribed portal and seek restoration of the appeals. No final determination was made on the validity of the earlier payment. A separate application may be made for refund of the amount deposited through DRC-03.
PMLA attachment standards validate single-member adjudication and preserve alleged proceeds of crime where statutory reasons support immediate restraint.
Under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, a compromise decree entered after attachment does not create an enforceable interest in attached property where title has not transferred and the attachment was known. Single-member adjudication by a Finance Member is permissible because the Adjudicating Authority conducts statutory scrutiny and remains subject to appellate review. Property acquired before registration of a scheduled offence may still be attached if directly or indirectly derived from criminal activity relating to that offence. Provisional and confirmation attachments require recorded, independent reasons to believe that the property constitutes proceeds of crime and that non-attachment may frustrate proceedings. Challenges to the factual basis of such satisfaction fall within the statutory appellate process.
Property-specific money-laundering findings are mandatory; general freezing reasons cannot justify retention or permit appellate reconstruction.
Under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the Adjudicating Authority must be constituted in accordance with the statutory requirement of a Chairperson and two qualified Members; a sole-Chairperson Bench without proof of lawful constitution lacks jurisdiction. Continued freezing or retention requires a reasoned, property-specific finding that identified assets are involved in money-laundering, supported by a nexus to criminal activity. General satisfaction that restraint is needed for adjudication is insufficient, and an appellate body cannot retrospectively supply the omitted original finding. Gross turnover, foreign remittances, or bank-account ownership alone do not establish proceeds of crime without a predicate offence and asset-specific justification.
Article 21 protection permits conditional PMLA bail where prolonged pre-trial custody makes trial completion remote.
Article 21 protects undertrials from pre-trial detention becoming punitive because of prolonged delay. The restrictive bail conditions under section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act may be relaxed where continued custody unjustifiably impairs personal liberty. Conditional bail was considered appropriate where incarceration had exceeded a year, bail had been granted in the scheduled offences, proceedings remained at the pre-cognizance stage, documentary material was already held by the Enforcement Directorate, and early trial completion was unlikely. This relief does not determine the merits of the money-laundering allegations.
Anticipatory bail in money-laundering matters engages twin bail conditions and the independent status of predicate offences.
Anticipatory bail under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act engages the statutory twin conditions governing bail in money-laundering offences. Money-laundering proceedings operate independently of predicate offences for this purpose. The legal focus is the interaction between anticipatory bail, the twin conditions, and the separate treatment of predicate and money-laundering proceedings under the Act.
IBC overriding effect extinguishes pre-CIRP electricity parallel operation charges covered by an approved resolution plan.
The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 overrides inconsistent provisions of the Electricity Act, 2003 through its statutory overriding clause, notwithstanding the Electricity Act's non obstante provisions. Pre-CIRP parallel operation charge demands constitute liabilities arising before commencement of the corporate insolvency resolution process. Where an approved resolution plan expressly extinguishes pre-CIRP debts and related pending proceedings, those electricity-charge outstandings stand extinguished and cannot survive the plan.
CIRP termination granting sought relief cannot itself support a challenge to the termination order.
Termination of the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process granted the relief sought in relation to that process. As the termination itself resolved the relevant grievance, it did not provide a basis to challenge the NCLAT order before the Supreme Court. The NCLAT order terminating the CIRP was therefore not open to challenge on that stated ground.
Time-extension penalties cannot be shifted to resolution applicants and homebuyers as insolvency resolution costs for a developer's default.
Time-extension charges imposed under a lease and subsequent policy for delayed completion of housing projects were penal in nature, intended to deter the defaulting developer and ensure timely construction. Where the developer entered insolvency, homebuyers financed continued construction and the successful resolution applicant undertook implementation of the approved resolution plan. Treating charges arising from the corporate debtor's past default as Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process costs would penalise parties not responsible for the delay, undermine the lease's developmental purpose and obstruct project completion. In the stated circumstances, such penalty charges, including claims beyond three years, cannot be imposed on the resolution applicant or homebuyers.