Immovable Property
4 articles
When Is a Building a “Plant”? The Supreme Court in Safari Retreats on Section 17(5)(d), Blocked Credit and the Functionality Test
A mall developer with more than Rs. 34 crores of input tax credit was told that Section 17(5)(d) blocked it. The Supreme Court upheld the blocked-credit clauses, refused to read “plant or machinery” as “plant and machinery”, and held that whether a building is a “plant” turns on a fact-specific functionality test — with hotels and cinema theatres excluded.
7 min readNo GST on Assignment of Leasehold Rights: Gujarat High Court Extends a Settled Ratio After the Supreme Court Declines to Interfere
A show-cause notice against Hercules Pigments Pvt. Ltd. was quashed in three paragraphs — the Gujarat High Court simply noted that the Supreme Court had, weeks earlier, declined to interfere with its own ruling that assigning a long-term industrial lease is a transfer of immovable property, not a taxable supply of service. The order is thin, but the line of authority behind it is not: this article traces the reasoning back through Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry v. Union of India and KP Green Engineering Ltd. v. Union of India to work out exactly how far the ratio extends, and where it stops.
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.
14 min read