Insights & Analysis
Parity, Severance and the Limits of Solatium: Supreme Court Restores Rs. 5 Lakh an Acre for the Aspal Extension Drain Acquisition
A 47-appeal batch on land taken for a drain in Fazilka. The Supreme Court rejects a distance-based valuation model, moves the severance baseline to the land left behind, and reaffirms that solatium attaches only to the value of the land.
14 min readInjunction First, Specific Performance Never: Supreme Court Applies Order II Rule 2 to Defeat a Suit on an Oral Agreement to Sell
In Bombay Garage Ahmedabad Limited v. J P Iscon Private Limited, the Supreme Court held that a withdrawn suit for injunction simpliciter, filed without leave to claim specific performance, bars a later suit for that relief, and that a heavy burden on the plaintiff to prove a concluded oral contract is not discharged by the defendants' evasive evidence.
13 min readMasterminds Yes, Backdating No: Delhi High Court Holds Section 122(1A) CGST Reaches Non-Taxable Persons but Only for Conduct on or After 1 January 2021
Three former directors were each fined ₹24,99,88,069 personally, the same amount as the company, for an alleged circular-trading scheme. The Delhi High Court has now answered two questions that split the High Courts: who can be penalised under Section 122(1A), and for which period. Its answer favours the Revenue on the first and the assessee on the second.
13 min readActual Credit, Not Available Credit: Delhi High Court Upholds a ₹2.31 Crore Anti-Profiteering Order Made After the Reckitt Benckiser Remand
A Bhubaneswar developer argued that the anti-profiteering authorities had simply swapped 'purchase value' for 'turnover' after the Reckitt Benckiser remand, and that unclaimed pre-GST CENVAT credit should offset its post-GST credit. The Delhi High Court disagreed on both counts.
14 min readA Specific Performance Decree Cannot Resurrect Acquired Land: Karnataka High Court Holds the Military Land Register Conclusive Against a 1995 Agreement to Sell
In Union of India v. Mohsin Sharieff, a Division Bench of the Karnataka High Court reversed a writ order that had restored a private buyer's name to the revenue records of land acquired in 1943 for the Yelahanka Air Force Station. Reading the acquisition file as one continuous chain and applying the nemo dat principle, the Bench held that a decree to which the Defence authorities were not party could not create title.
14 min readNon-Payment of Sale Consideration Cannot Void a Registered Sale Deed: The Allahabad High Court Revisits Section 54 of the Transfer of Property Act
In Devendra Singh v. Great Home Developers Pvt. Ltd., the Allahabad High Court held that a registered sale deed reciting full receipt of consideration and delivery of possession cannot be cancelled merely because the buyer's cheques were later dishonoured, since Section 54 of the Transfer of Property Act makes actual payment no precondition to a completed sale — the seller's remedy lies in a suit for the balance price, not in unwinding the conveyance.
13 min readShow-Cause Notice as Foundation: CESTAT Kolkata Clears a Rs. 144 Crore Reverse-Charge Demand Under the Place of Provision of Services Rules
A shipping company faced with a Rs. 144.27 crore reverse-charge service tax demand watched the department appeal the near-entirety of it after an adjudicating authority accepted the company's own reading of the Place of Provision of Services Rules. CESTAT Kolkata dismissed that appeal, holding that a show cause notice which asserts a rule applies without saying why the taxpayer's contrary claim is wrong cannot sustain either the demand or an extended period of limitation — and separately held that demurrage is not consideration for a service at all.
13 min readDeath Is Not a Bar: Delhi High Court Holds Section 93 CGST Act Permits GST Penalty Proceedings to Be Commenced Against a Legal Representative After the Taxpayer's Death
More than three years after her husband died, the GST Department issued his widow a Show Cause Notice proposing a penalty for his alleged acts. She argued Section 93 of the CGST Act only lets proceedings already begun in a taxpayer's lifetime continue after death — not begin afresh. The Delhi High Court disagreed, upheld the provision against an Article 14 challenge, and ordered the Department to explain what it is still doing with ₹15.4 lakh in seized cash.
13 min readA Registered Power of Attorney, Once Exercised, Cannot Be Undone by Its Own Later Cancellation: Madras High Court on Sections 200–202 of the Contract Act
In C.Rajendran v. P. Arumugam, the Madras High Court held that an agreement of sale executed by a registered power-of-attorney agent binds the principal so long as the power was valid and unrevoked at the time of the agreement, rejecting the principals' argument that a subsequent cancellation of the power, and a disputed reading of its acreage, could defeat a decree for specific performance.
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