Insights & Analysis
Bland Recitals Will Not Do: Supreme Court Quashes a Section 74 GST Notice for Want of Foundational Facts of Fraud or Suppression
An audit objection, a notice parked in the department's own 'call book', and a bare assertion of suppression were not enough to invoke GST's extended limitation period. The Supreme Court draws a sharp line between reciting the words of Section 74 and actually pleading the facts that justify it.
13 min readNo Sovereign Shield for Commercial Leasing: CESTAT Holds Delhi Development Authority Liable to Service Tax on Renting Nazul Land
The Delhi Development Authority argued that leasing government land and running its sports complex were sovereign functions immune from service tax. CESTAT disagreed: an enabling power, exercised for consideration retained in the authority's own accounts, is commerce, not statutory duty.
13 min readRedevelopment by Majority: Sattva New Heights v. Patankar on When a Minority Member Can Enjoin a Housing Society
Two members out of three hundred got an injunction that stopped an entire redevelopment project. The Bombay High Court took it apart, ground by ground — and along the way set out how courts should treat SPV bidders, shifting environmental classifications and project management consultants in society redevelopment disputes.
16 min readFresh Contract, Fresh Import: Delhi High Court Denies Customs Re-Import Exemption on Petroleum Equipment Routed Through an FTWZ
Baker Hughes, BJ Services and Halliburton argued that parking exploration equipment in an FTWZ between contracts let them re-enter it duty-free as a re-import. The Delhi High Court disagreed: without continuity between the export and the return, there is no re-import at all.
14 min readMutation Is Not Title: Jamnabai v. Vasudev on Revenue Entries, Relinquishment and the Limits of Second Appeal
A name removed from the revenue record in 1990 did not cost a co-owner his share. This case note works through all four issues the Supreme Court decided in Jamnabai v. Vasudev, from Section 117 of the MP Land Revenue Code to the proviso to Section 34 of the Specific Relief Act.
14 min readSpecific Performance When Litigation Drags On and Property Prices Rise: Should the Buyer Still Get the Decree?
Price escalation alone is not a defence. Buyer-caused delay is. This guide explains how Indian courts separate the two, and how a decree can be moulded to balance equities.
14 min readHe Who Seeks Equity Must Do Equity: V.N.A.S. Chandran v. S. Venila on Conduct, Delay and Discretion in Specific Performance
The buyers may well have been able to pay. They still lost the property. This case note examines how inconsistent conduct, a retaliatory FIR and two decades of delay defeated a decree of specific performance.
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