Introduction For ages, proving a bank document during court action used to mean producing a certified copy of the relevant ledger. This model was based on the assumption that the record is kept in a book located in a specific place. Banking today involves core banking processes, UPI, mobile apps, cloud storage and backup sites…
Introduction On 26 October 2026, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) issued eight circulars (Nos. 257 to 264/2026-GST) in one stroke. Individually, each resolves a specific pain point. Together, they signal a clear direction: fewer procedural hurdles at entry, greater discipline on the Department in litigation, and relief where taxpayers’ cash is…
Introduction Most organisations preparing for the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (“DPDP Act”) have concentrated on what an auditor would ask to see including privacy notices, consent flows, retention schedules and policy documents. A personal data breach tests something different. It asks whether the organisation can detect an incident, contain it, assess it and…
Introduction The Goods and Services Tax framework divides a single tax into three heads: Central Tax (CGST), State Tax (SGST) and Integrated Tax (IGST). Each head is accounted for separately and Section 49 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (the “CGST Act”) prescribes how input tax credit (ITC) may move between them….
Introduction Maternity protection sits at the meeting point of labour rights, gender justice and constitutional dignity. The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 (the “Act”) is a welfare statute, yet in practice women engaged as consultants, contractual staff or on consolidated pay are often told that their appointment terms leave no room for maternity leave. In Smt….
Introduction On 22 October 2026, SEBI issued a press release cautioning investors against stock tips and trading calls circulated through invitation-only WhatsApp groups. On its face, this is an investor-protection advisory. It also shows how unregistered advice moves through closed digital channels, and why the compliance obligations of fintechs, intermediaries and finfluencers matter in this…
Introduction In M/s Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Limited v. Union of India & Ors. [R/Special Civil Application No. 7085 of 2025, decided on 14.10.2026], a Division Bench of the Hon’ble Gujarat High Court considered whether a head office that does not cross-charge common expenses to its branches can be made liable to GST and…
Introduction Mutual transfer allows two government employees to exchange their places of posting, usually on their own request and with the approval of the department. Departments often regulate this through executive instructions, and one common condition is that both employees must be covered by the same service rules. In The Director of Animal Husbandry and…
Introduction The 57th Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council meeting was held on 8 October 2026 in New Delhi under the chairpersonship of Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs. According to the PIB release, the Chief Ministers of Delhi, Goa, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and Meghalaya attended. So…
Introduction At the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai, Reserve Bank of India (“RBI”) Governor Sanjay Malhotra announced the recognition of the Unified Fintech Forum (‘UFF’) as the second self-regulatory organisation for the fintech sector (‘SRO-FT’). The step extends the RBI’s preference for industry-led standard-setting in a sector where many participants sit outside the formal regulatory…
Introduction Artificial intelligence (“AI”) agents are not merely responding to user queries. They are now operating on behalf of a person. To carry out these functions, they require extensive access to a user’s stored device data. A controversy between Meta and a tech analyst centred on Meta’s Muse agent has now led to pressure on…
Introduction In Vishal Oil and Lubricants Co. v. Commissioner of Customs (Import) [W.P.(C) 7004/2026 and CM APPL. 34395/2026], a Division Bench of the Hon’ble Delhi High Court examined a question importers frequently face: from what date can interest be computed on liability arising from confiscation and redemption of goods? The Hon’ble Court held that interest…
Introduction When a government employee is convicted in a criminal case, service rules often permit the employer to dismiss him on the basis of the conviction. If the conviction is later reversed on appeal, a question follows: is the employee entitled to wages for the period he was out of service? The Supreme Court has…
Introduction At the Global Fintech Fest (GFF) 2026 in Mumbai, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Sanjay Malhotra delivered a landmark keynote address calling upon the fintech ecosystem to double down on financial inclusion, consumer trust, and responsible innovation. India’s digital finance ecosystem has achieved unprecedented scale, notably through the normalization of digital payments across…
Introduction India’s build-out of AI compute capacity is increasingly discussed in terms of capital, tax, procurement and long-term financing. At a closed-door meeting on ‘Financing India’s Frontier & Compute Ecosystem’, industry executives asked for long-term demand commitments, easier financing, a clear exit framework for lenders and lessors, and tax relief on imported GPUs. Each proposal…
Introduction The Hon’ble High Court of Punjab and Haryana decided, in the case of Shaurya Alloys Pvt. Ltd. v. State of Punjab and another, CWP-34296-2024 (O&M), and other related cases, on 01.10.2026, that although Section 16(2)(c) of the Central Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017 (“the Act”) is constitutionally valid, it should not be invoked…
Introduction The Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (“Act”) provides two distinct routes for interim protection in aid of arbitration. An application to the Court under Section 9, and an application to the Arbitral Tribunal under Section 17. Each route has its own appellate remedy under Section 37. A question that has arisen in practice is…
Introduction In Mukhya Vyavasthapak, Banswara Kray Vikray Sahakari Samiti Limited v. Pradeep Singh Rathore & Ors. (D.B. Special Appeal Writ No. 993/2025, together with connected Special Appeals Nos. 995/2025, 1137/2025 and 1762/2025), decided on 10 September 2026, a Division Bench of the Rajasthan High Court at Jodhpur, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay K. Agrawal and Justice…
Introduction India’s real-time digital payments architecture, spearheaded by the Unified Payments Interface, has achieved unprecedented operational scale, handling over 750 million daily transactions with a strategic target of exceeding one billion daily transactions. However, this explosive growth in transaction volume has coincided with an increasingly sophisticated landscape of financial cybercrime, forcing regulatory authorities and infrastructure…
Introduction Online Information and Database Access or Retrieval services, hereinafter referred to as “OIDAR services”, have been taxed in India when supplied by overseas providers since 01.12.2026. The tax was first levied as service tax under the Finance Act, 1994 and the Service Tax Rules, 1994. From 01.07.2017, it has been levied as integrated tax…
Introduction India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (“DPDP Act”) represents a monumental statutory assertion of digital sovereignty for 1.4 billion citizens. However, the simultaneous emergence of Generative AI (“GenAI”), trained on vast, opaque datasets and deployed over borderless global cloud infrastructure, creates a profound operational collision. Where the DPDP Act establishes a territorially rooted,…
Introduction Eporters who supply goods without payment of tax frequently find that the credit they have accumulated on inputs cannot be used against any output liability, and must instead be recovered through a refund claim. How the amount of that refund is computed is therefore a question of considerable commercial importance. In its recent order…
Introduction The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 (“OSH Code”) was intended to provide employers with a single, predictable framework for the everyday aspects of employment, such as working hours, leave and overtime, in place of the range of State legislation that had traditionally governed these areas. Since the OSH Code came into…
Introduction India’s card payments ecosystem has recently seen two fee-related issues come to a head in quick succession. On one hand, the National Payments Corporation of India has issued detailed FAQs clarifying the Merchant Discount Rate, the fee a merchant pays for accepting a digital payment, applicable to UPI transactions, providing much-needed certainty to industry…
Introduction The European Commission issued preliminary findings indicating that TikTok may have breached the Digital Services Act (“DSA”) in relation to the protection of minors. The Commission’s concerns include the accessibility of public account content, the ease with which younger users can change their account settings, and the recommendation of minors’ content through the platform’s…
Introduction In Commissioner of Customs, Ludhiana v. Hightop Trading Pvt. Ltd.in Review Petition (Civil) Diary No. 15131 of 2026 in Civil Appeal No. 12918 of 2025, decided on 22.07.2026, the Hon’ble Supreme Court has dismissed a review petition filed by the Revenue against its own earlier order, which affirmed a decision of the Hon’ble CESTAT,…
€403M Fine on Google: What Global Enforcement Means for India’s DPDPA Landscape? When a legacy UX decision costs €403 million, “industry standard” is no longer a defense. India is sitting on a time bomb of legacy data only. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) has penalized Google €403 million over historical location-tracking practices across Web &…
Introduction Online Information and Database Access or Retrieval services, referred to in this article as “OIDAR services”, are taxed under a special scheme in the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, hereinafter referred to as the “IGST Act”. This scheme rests on three provisions. Section 2(17) defines what an OIDAR service is. Section 2(16)…
Introduction Global Capability Centres (‘GCCs’) have moved well beyond their origins as cost-efficient offshore delivery units. Across technology, financial services, pharmaceuticals, retail, manufacturing and consulting, India-based GCCs now anchor product engineering, analytics, cybersecurity, finance and AI-led work for global enterprises. For foreign businesses, general counsel and investors evaluating or scaling a GCC, this shift carries…
Introduction The Department of Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, notified the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) (Amendment) Rules, 2026 on 9 September 2026, amending the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 framed under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. The amendment, which comes into force on 1 January 2027, is the most significant recalibration…
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