Delhi High Court
9 articles
Circular, Not Notification: Delhi High Court Upholds the 'Highest Demand' Rule for Choosing a Common Adjudicating Authority in Multi-State DGGI Notices
Eight petitioners caught up in an alleged three-layer fake-invoicing chain challenged the jurisdiction of the Delhi-based officer who adjudicated a composite show cause notice naming 146 noticees, arguing that only a notification, not a circular, could assign an adjudicating authority. The Delhi High Court dismissed the petitions, holding that the 'highest demand' circular does no more than allocate business among officers already vested with pan-India jurisdiction by notification, and relegated the petitioners to their statutory appeal.
13 min readJudicial Discipline Binds the Revenue Too: Delhi High Court Quashes a GST Demand That Defied a Binding CESTAT Refund Order
Welspring Universal was handed a Rs. 76,72,000 demand for a CENVAT refund the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal had already held it was entitled to keep, on limitation grounds the Tribunal had already rejected. The Delhi High Court quashed the demand, holding that a departmental adjudicating authority cannot treat a superior appellate order as though it does not exist merely because a parallel proceeding remains formally open.
14 min readWhose Delay Is It? Delhi High Court Holds a ₹20 Crore Customs Demand Timely Because the Assessee's Own Writ Stay Suspended the Section 28(9) Clock
GKEM International argued that a ₹20.18 crore customs demand was time-barred because its show cause notice sat in the department's 'Call Book' for years. The Delhi High Court disagreed: the delay was occasioned by the assessee's own writ petition and interim stay, which is exactly the circumstance Section 28(9A) excludes from the limitation clock — and the Call Book entry was merely the administrative record of that fact, not its source.
14 min readBlocked Is Not Paid: Delhi High Court Holds Input Tax Credit Restricted Under Rule 86A Cannot Satisfy the Mandatory Pre-Deposit for a GST Appeal
A registered person facing a Rs. 33.32 lakh GST demand wanted Rs. 3.33 lakh of its own input tax credit — already frozen under Rule 86A — treated as satisfying the ten per cent pre-deposit needed to appeal. The Delhi High Court refused: a restriction under Rule 86A prevents debit from the electronic credit ledger, it does not appropriate the credit toward any demand, and the two authorities holding otherwise on unrestricted credit had no application to credit that is actually blocked.
13 min readA Claim Never Filed Is a Claim Extinguished: Delhi High Court Quashes a Customs Duty Demand the Department Never Placed Before the Resolution Professional
The goods were imported in 2023, the insolvency process ran its course in 2024 and 2025, and the customs show-cause notice arrived only after the resolution plan had already been approved. The Delhi High Court held that a customs demand for duty, interest and penalty on a pre-CIRP import cannot outlive a resolution plan the department never bothered to file a claim in — however live the underlying adjudication otherwise remained.
14 min readA Department That Once Agreed With You Cannot Later Call You a Suppressor: Delhi High Court Sets Aside Service Tax Penalty on Construction Services to Government Hospitals and Educational Institutions
Two officers of the Service Tax Department told the audit wing, in writing, that a construction consultant's work for government hospitals and colleges was not taxable. Nineteen years and one appeal later, the Delhi High Court held that the Department could not turn around and call the same conduct wilful suppression warranting penalty, even after upholding the underlying demand for the last nine months of a five-year dispute.
13 min readNo HUF, No Valid Will: Delhi High Court Untangles a Three-Generation Family Property Dispute
A family fought for fourteen years over a Delhi house, advancing three overlapping property claims at once — an HUF, a Will, a Gift Deed. The Delhi High Court found each unravelled the moment it was actually tested against the documents and the witnesses.
13 min readEarnest Money Forfeited, Part-Payment Refunded: Delhi High Court Draws the Line in a Failed Agreement to Sell
A buyer paid Rs. 17.5 lakh under an Agreement to Sell, then defaulted. The seller kept it all. The Delhi High Court had to work out how much of that money was truly earnest money — and how much was simply price paid too early.
14 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 read