Case Law
Tribunal, High Court and Supreme Court rulings that matter.
Amul Beats Back a ₹43-Crore GST Demand — And the Case Was Never About Invoices
Gujarat High Court quashed a ₹43.43-crore IGST demand against Amul’s parent GCMMF, holding that not cross-charging head-office services to branches isn’t automatic “suppression” under Section 74 where the branches have full ITC — CBIC’s own Rule 28 circular did the heavy lifting.
20 Oct 20266 min read
Read MoreITAT Guwahati Quashes a ₹5.68 Crore Cash-Transaction Penalty — Not on the Facts, But Because the Department Was Six Months Too Late
ITAT Guwahati quashed a ₹5.68 crore Section 271DA cash-penalty order as time-barred under Section 275(1)(c) — six months late — without ever reaching the merits of the underlying cash receipts. Prepared by Finoscape Editorial Team.
15 Oct 20266 min read
Read MoreDelhi High Court: A Late DRC-01 or DRC-07 Date Can’t Make a Timely GST Notice or Order Time-Barred — Aparna Collection Explained
Two writ petitions, one recurring argument: if the department’s electronic paperwork is dated late, does that make the underlying GST […]
12 Oct 20266 min read
Read MoreDelhi High Court: A GST Refund Order Isn’t the Only Thing That Can Keep Your Money Stuck — Devi Electronics on Section 54(11)
Delhi HC upholds the GST department’s withholding of a Rs 3.15 crore sanctioned refund under Section 54(11) of the CGST Act, holding a pending Anti-Evasion Wing investigation qualifies as ‘other proceedings’ even absent a departmental appeal. Prepared by Finoscape Editorial Team.
3 Oct 20266 min read
Read MoreBoard Meeting and AGM on the Same Day: What the ROC Karnataka Order on Section 101 Teaches Every Company
ROC Karnataka penalised Stanley OEM Sofas Limited and its directors for holding the Board Meeting and AGM on the same day. Here is what Sections 101 and 136 require and how to plan your AGM calendar.
30 Sept 20269 min read
Read MorePuneet Batra v. Union of India: Supreme Court Stays Delhi HC on GST Search of Advocate’s Office
The Supreme Court has stayed a Delhi High Court judgment that upheld a GST department search of an advocate’s office, pausing examination of seized data while it examines the advocate-client privilege question under Section 67 of the CGST Act — with the advocate due before the GST officer today.
30 Sept 20266 min read
Read MoreTwenty Years, One Machine: Calcutta HC Settles Whether an ATM Is a “Computer” for Depreciation
The Calcutta High Court has held that ATMs qualify as “computers” under the Income-tax Rules, entitling banks to the higher depreciation rate. What the functional-utility test means for any business claiming depreciation on specialised equipment.
24 Sept 20266 min read
Read MoreOut of NCLT, Back Into the GST Appeal: Madras High Court’s Reduced Pre-Deposit Route for Resolved Companies
The Madras High Court has permitted a company that emerged from NCLT insolvency resolution to pursue a statutory GST appeal, conditional on depositing the full tax demand plus only 10% of interest and penalty under Section 107(6) of the CGST Act.
23 Sept 20265 min read
Read More“Tremendous Pressure” Is Not a Reason: Calcutta HC Refuses to Excuse the Income Tax Department’s 4-Year Delay in Filing Its Own Appeal
The Calcutta High Court has refused to condone a 1,480-day delay by the Income Tax Department in filing an appeal against PwC, holding that departmental workload is not “sufficient cause” under Section 260A of the Income-tax Act.
23 Sept 20266 min read
Read MoreSupreme Court: A CBDT Circular Cannot Bind the Courts — Export Quota Premium Denied Section 80HHC Benefit
In Orient Crafts Ltd. & Samtex Fashions Ltd. v. CIT, the Supreme Court has held that a CBDT circular equating export-quota sale premiums with Section 28(iiia)-(iiic) export income cannot bind the courts, denying the connected Section 80HHC deduction.
20 Sept 20267 min read
Read MoreSupreme Court Stays the Section 147A Ruling: The Reassessment Fight Is Frozen Until December
A stay usually means one thing wins and the other loses. This one doesn’t — the Supreme Court has frozen both the Section 147A ruling and the reassessment proceedings riding on it, until 3 December.
19 Sept 20267 min read
Read MoreOnce Settled, Always Settled: Supreme Court Shuts the Door on Reopening ITSC Orders Through Reassessment
Settlement is supposed to mean something is actually settled. That was, at bottom, the question the Supreme Court answered on […]
18 Sept 20267 min read
Read MoreCentre Challenges the Section 147A Ruling: The Reassessment Fight Moves to the Supreme Court
Six days is not very long, as legal timelines go. On 11 September, the Punjab & Haryana High Court struck […]
18 Sept 20266 min read
Read MoreA Demand Cannot Stand on an Appellate Order CESTAT Has Already Set Aside — Delhi HC (Welspring Universal)
The Delhi High Court has quashed a ₹76.72 lakh demand-cum-show-cause notice and confirmation order because the adjudicating authority relied on a Commissioner (Appeals) order that CESTAT had already set aside.
16 Sept 20265 min read
Read MoreDGGI’s Section 122 Jurisdiction Upheld, Pre-Deposit Transition Rule Reaffirmed — Delhi HC (Rohit Garg)
In a batch of 629 writ petitions worth over ₹227 crore, the Delhi High Court has upheld DGGI officers’ jurisdiction to issue Section 122 GST penalty notices, and reaffirmed that the amended 10% pre-deposit rule doesn’t reach back to pre-October-2025 show cause notices.
16 Sept 20268 min read
Read MoreDelhi HC: Same Income, Taxed Twice, Six Years Apart — the Court Fixed It
The Delhi High Court has permitted a belated revised return under Section 119(2)(b) after a taxpayer, through no fault of its own, ended up paying tax on the same ₹7.58 crore of interest income twice, after the deductor silently revised Form 26AS.
15 Sept 20265 min read
Read MoreHDFC Life: A ₹942 Crore GST Notice Just Grew Into a ₹3,365 Crore Confirmed Demand
The Commissioner (Appeals-III), CGST & Central Excise, Mumbai has confirmed a ₹3,365 crore GST demand and penalty against HDFC Life Insurance, rooted in a sector-wide DGGI probe into input tax credit claimed on agent-commission-linked invoices.
15 Sept 20265 min read
Read MoreITAT Mumbai: A Bitcoin Reassessment Fell Apart Over Who Signed the Approval, Not the Bitcoin
ITAT Mumbai has quashed a reassessment that added Rs 1.24 crore in bitcoin-sale proceeds as unexplained investment, after finding the reopening — beyond three years — was sanctioned by the wrong authority under Section 151(ii).
14 Sept 20265 min read
Read MoreDelhi HC: An Assessing Officer Can’t Ignore a Reply That’s Already on the Record
The Delhi High Court has quashed a Section 148A(d) reassessment order because the Assessing Officer had the taxpayer’s reply on record — uploaded before the order was passed — and simply didn’t consider it.
14 Sept 20265 min read
Read MoreBombay High Court: Contractor Entitled to GST Reimbursement on Pre-GST Government Tender
In June 2014, the Nagpur Improvement Trust floated a tender for an affordable housing project at Wathoda, Nagpur. Indu Construction […]
10 Sept 20267 min read
Read MorePunjab & Haryana HC: Section 74 CGST Act Cannot Question Pre-GST CENVAT Credit
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has held that GST authorities cannot use Section 74 of the CGST Act to reopen the admissibility of CENVAT credit originally availed under the pre-GST Service Tax regime, following the Jharkhand High Court’s Usha Martin ruling — now affirmed by the Supreme Court’s dismissal of the department’s review petition.
9 Sept 20267 min read
Read MoreSupreme Court Upholds Quashing of ₹363-Crore GST Demand Against Vodafone Idea Post-Merger
The Supreme Court has refused to revive a ₹363 crore GST demand issued to Vodafone Mobile Services Limited after its 2018 merger into Idea Cellular, holding that Section 87 of the CGST Act cannot authorise a notice to a company that had already ceased to exist — with the department’s own knowledge of the merger sealing the outcome.
9 Sept 20267 min read
Read MoreSupreme Court Quashes ₹425-Crore Customs Penalty Built on AI-Hallucinated Case Law
The Supreme Court has quashed a ₹425.27 crore Customs penalty after finding the adjudicating officer relied on non-existent, fake-cited and AI-hallucinated case law — the third such ruling Finoscape has covered in 2026.
8 Sept 20268 min read
Read MoreSupreme Court: Delay in Depositing Tax Is Not “Failure to Pay” — Saudi Arabian Airlines Penalty Quashed
The Supreme Court has quashed a ₹71.29 lakh penalty on Saudi Arabian Airlines, holding that mere delay in depositing Foreign Travel Tax cannot be equated with failure to pay it, and that penalty under a fiscal statute is never automatic.
7 Sept 20269 min read
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