Introduction The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, in Commissioner of Service Tax, Mumbai v. M/s Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. & Ors., C.A. No. 2471-2473 OF 2015 : 2026 INSC 723, decided on 20.07.2026, restored service tax demands exceeding ₹16 crore against Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (“BPCL“) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (“HPCL“). The Hon’ble Court…
Introduction In the instances wherein the employer discharges an employee while there is a pending industrial dispute, it is mandatory to adhere to specific requirements in the form of the payment or promise of one month’s wages along with the approval from the competent authority under Section 33(2)(b) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (hereinafter…
Introduction Lenders assessed creditworthiness using traditional indicators such as repayment history, income, and existing loans, with Credit Information Companies like CIBIL converting these into a credit score. AI-driven credit scoring is transforming this approach by analysing alternative data, including mobile usage, utility bill payments, digital transactions, app behaviour, and device patterns, to assess borrowers with…
Introduction The European Data Protection Board (“EDPB”) has issued detailed guidelines on anonymisation and web scraping in the context of generative AI. These guidelines clarify when data can be considered truly “anonymous” and therefore outside the scope of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). Although the guidelines are not binding in India, they are…
Introduction Corporate amalgamations often transfer tax liabilities to the successor entity. But can GST authorities continue proceedings in the name of a company that has legally ceased to exist? The Bombay High Court addressed this question in Kanakia Spaces Realty Private Limited v. Union of India, Writ Petition No. 2586 of 2026 vide order dated…
Introduction The Central Government has notified the Employees’ Provident Fund (“EPF”) Scheme, 2026, replacing the Employees’ Provident Fund Scheme, 1952, which had governed retirement savings in India for nearly seven decades. Framed under the Code on Social Security, 2020, the new scheme touches close to seven crore active EPFO subscribers and, within days of its…
Introduction Spanning from credit decisions, fraud detection, customer service, to risk management, banks and other regulated entities in India have gradually shifted their reliance on spreadsheet-based calculators to high-tech AI and machine learning systems. This transition has brought tangible efficiencies but also a new class of risk not covered by traditional banking supervision. To address…
Introduction While facial recognition technology has emerged as a critical tool for policing and infrastructural purposes in India, the technology’s use does not have a legal mechanism that is specifically designed to regulate it. While the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (“DPDP Act”) provides for a legal framework on how personal data should be…
Introduction The Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime was conceived as a unified indirect tax regime to eliminate cascading effect of taxes, by replacing multiple central and state taxes with a single destination-based system. In practice, it operates under a dual control framework in which the Central Government and State/Union Territory authorities share administration and…
Introduction In Subhash v. Union of India & Others, O.A. 1077 of 2013, the Central Administrative Tribunal, Allahabad Bench has by an order dated 07.04.2026, rejected a case of regularisation, temporary position, and arrears of salary brought before the Tribunal by a claimant claiming to have continuously served as a casual worker of Bharat Sanchar…
Introduction For years, India’s fintech ecosystem have seen a familiar script unfold. A customer success executive with database access exports a CSV with thousands of user profile names, PAN numbers, bank account details, loan histories. The internal security team logs the anomaly. HR silently suspends the employee. Legal counsel is in the loop. Then the…
FACTS M/s Jai Balaji Industries Ltd. (“Petitioner”), a company incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956, had placed several purchase orders upon Garuda Ispat Private Limited (“Respondent”) during 2016 for supply of steel materials. A dispute arose between the parties concerning quality of the material supplied and payments claimed by the Respondent. The Petitioner rejected material…
Introduction The Hon’ble Guwahati High Court in Gurucharan Kangsa Banik v. Union of India, W.P.(C) No. 2881 of 2026, decided on 03.06.2026, set aside an Order-in-Original which had denied input tax credit (“ITC”) to a bona fide purchasing dealer solely on the ground that the selling dealer had failed to deposit the tax collected from…
Introduction Allahabad High Court (Lucknow Bench) in Azim Premji v. State of U.P. Application U/S 3261 of 2017, decided on 29.05.2024, the criminal complaint proceedings along with the summoning order and bailable warrant issued against the Chairman and Managing Director of a company for allegedly violating the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976 by an independent third-party…
Introduction The global fintech landscape is witnessing a defining contest between privately issued stablecoins and government-backed digital currencies. Rather than following international trends, India has adopted a cautious regulatory approach centred on the Digital Rupee and long-term financial stability. The largest policy challenge of the moment is to decide on whether there should be privately…
Brief Facts An agreement for sale of iron ore was executed on 12.02.2004 between M/s Tarini Prasad Mohanty (the mine owner/appellant) and M/s Sunflag Iron and Steel Company Limited (SISCO/respondent). Supplementary agreements were also entered into subsequently. Disputes arose between the parties, and in accordance with the arbitration clause, the matter was referred to a…
Introduction Cloud regulation is no longer limited to questions of data protection and cybersecurity. Increasingly, governments are also examining who controls the infrastructure on which data is stored, processed, and accessed. Reflecting this shift, the European Commission proposed the Cloud and AI Development Act on 3 June 2026, a legislative initiative aimed at strengthening the…
Introduction Proceedings under the Customs Act rarely remain confined to the importing entity alone. In cases involving alleged concealment or misdeclaration, customs authorities often proceed not only against the firm but also against the individuals connected with the transaction. A recent decision of the Ahmedabad Bench of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal…
Introduction An employee disappears from work without notice. The employer sends a registered letter to the address on file. No reply comes. Weeks later, the employee surfaces, claims he tried to return and was turned away, and files a complaint before the Labour Commissioner. The Labour Court awards reinstatement with full back wages. The High…
Introduction If you have ever had a subscription auto-renew unexpectedly, a streaming service quietly debit your account, or an EMI go through without any warning, you have experienced the gap that India’s e-mandate framework was supposed to fill. That gap is now being closed. On April 21, 2026, the Reserve Bank of India issued the…
FACTS The Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways issued a preliminary notification dated 15.12.2009 under Section 3A(1) of the National Highways Act, 1956 for acquisition of land in Bellary District, which included land belonging to Respondent No. 1. By a declaration dated 14.12.2010 under Section 3D(2), the land vested in the Central Government free…
Introduction The Hon’ble Allahabad High Court in Samarpan Jain v. State of U.P. & 2 others Criminal Misc. Writ Petition No. 23443 of 2025 dated 21.05.2026 quashed the FIR, charge sheet, and the order of cognizance initiated against an Advocate for being criminally accused for merely filing a statutory appeal before the GST authorities and…
Introduction Garden leave is a practice where an employee gets their salary during their notice period but they are not allowed to work join a competitor or do any business activity. This practice has become very important in employment contracts in India but its legal status is still not clear. Garden leave came from employment…
Introduction The world of payments has steadily been reducing friction over the years, starting with cash, then moving on to cards, then digital wallets, and finally the one-click payment option. Every one of these developments has made payments faster, smoother and more convenient. In each step along this path however, one underlying principle always held…
Introduction ‘Facial Recognition Technology’ has become more and more predominant in Society as technology has developed over time. We have transitioned from a period where we required a high-quality and expensive camera with an experienced photographer to take a single photo to a point where any layperson can take a photo, such was the development…
Introduction The online gaming industry in India has operated with the quiet confidence of an industry that believed it had already won its most important legal battle. The distinction between a game of skill and a game of chance had been litigated, argued, and settled in courtrooms across the country, and each time the verdict…
Introduction Over the last ten years, the world has seen a huge transformation in the global economy with the explosive growth of the platform or gig economy. Millions of people around the world are now making a living with digital platforms like Uber, Swiggy, Zomato, Amazon Flex and a wide variety of other app-based service…
Introduction The NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) has entered into a strategic partnership with ACLEDA Bank Plc., that aims to implement the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in Cambodia, making it a boon for the Indian travellers in Cambodia who can now use UPI in order to make payments to businesses and retails present in the…
Your Privacy Policy is now Irrelevant! A strategic breakdown of the Supreme Court’s shift in “No Privacy by Design”!! On May 22, 2026, the Supreme Court quieted a massive structural debate in Pune Bar Association v. UOI. They ruled that data integrity is a matter of necessity, not convenience, making cryptographic hashing the absolute floor…
Introduction The harmless mistake of inadvertently missing transactions whilst filing for tax refunds is a common one. The question is whether it would be possible for a taxpayer to file a later application if he or she had requested a refund for a wider tax period, without causing any procedural irregularity. The Hon’ble Bombay High…
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