Daily Intelligence Capsule — 12 September 2026
Latest EditionLatest Edition — Saturday, 12 September 2026Income Tax
Section 147A Struck Down: Punjab & Haryana High Court Reopens the JAO Reassessment-Notice Fight
The Punjab & Haryana High Court has struck down Section 147A of the Income Tax Act as unconstitutional, reopening the fight over reassessment notices issued by Jurisdictional Assessing Officers rather than the faceless centre — with roughly ₹17 lakh crore in disclosed fiscal exposure and 500+ writ petitions directly affected.
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No More GST Registration Without Biometric Aadhaar: Delhi High Court's Nationwide Direction
The Delhi High Court has directed that no GST registration be granted anywhere in India without biometric Aadhaar authentication, responding to over ₹28,000 crore in fraud-linked tax evasion detected across two years through fake registrations.
Read: No More GST Registration Without Biometric Aadhaar: Delhi High Court's Nationwide DirectionDid You Know
Section 147A wasn't struck down for lack of legislative power to validate retrospectively…
Section 147A wasn't struck down because Parliament lacked the power to retrospectively validate tax notices — retrospective validation is a well-established legislative tool. It was struck down because validating legislation has to actually fix the defect a court identified. Here, nine High Courts had said reassessment notices needed random, automated allocation to a faceless officer under a specific 2022 Scheme and Section 151A. Section 147A never touched either of those — it just declared, after the fact, that the old-style notices had been valid all along.
Read: Section 147A wasn't struck down for lack of legislative power to validate retrospectively…