Author: Anvita Dwivedi

The Supreme Court has reaffirmed a fundamental principle governing tax settlements: once the Income Tax Settlement Commission has passed a final order determining the taxable income of an assessee, the Assessing Officer cannot subsequently reopen matters covered by that settlement through the ordinary reassessment machinery. A Bench comprising Justice S.V.N. Bhatti and Justice N.V. Anjaria dismissed the Revenue’s appeal against the Delhi High Court and held that permitting the Assessing Officer to independently invoke Sections 147 and 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961, after the Settlement Commission has conclusively determined the matter would effectively destroy the statutory finality attached…

The Supreme Court has once again stepped into the continuing crisis surrounding vacancies in India’s tribunals, urging the Union Government to consider extending the tenure of existing tribunal members on a temporary basis until fresh appointments are completed. A Bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana made it clear that tribunals cannot be permitted to become functionally defunct merely because the tenure of their existing members has expired while the appointment process for their successors remains incomplete. The Court indicated that any continuation would have to be strictly ad hoc, temporary and…

The controversy over the rendition of Vande Mataram has now moved from political disagreement into the constitutional courtroom, with a Public Interest Litigation before the Karnataka High Court challenging the State Government’s decision to restrict the National Song to its first two stanzas at most State Government functions. The petition raises a question considerably wider than the immediate dispute over the length of a song: whether a State Government, through an executive order, can prescribe a version of a national symbol different from the version recognised and regulated through Union Government protocol, particularly after Parliament has recently extended statutory protection…

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant has placed judicial transparency and institutional accountability at the centre of an important constitutional conversation, asserting that the judiciary cannot seek public confidence by insulating itself from scrutiny. Speaking at the Sixth Ram Jethmalani Memorial Lecture in New Delhi on the theme “Justice Seen to Be Done: Transparency and Public Trust as Pillars of the Legal System”, the CJI emphasised that fair, informed and constructive criticism of judicial functioning is not an attack on judicial independence but an essential feature of a constitutional democracy. His intervention assumes particular significance at a time when questions…

The Delhi High Court has declined to entertain a challenge brought by P.B. Agro LLP, the master licensee associated with Vimal Elaichi, against show-cause notices issued by the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration to Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan, Ajay Devgn and Tiger Shroff over advertisements for the product. Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma dismissed the petition on the ground that the Delhi High Court lacked territorial jurisdiction to examine the challenge and held that the courts in Maharashtra constituted the more appropriate and convenient forum for adjudicating the grievance. Significantly, the Court did not decide whether the advertisements amounted to…

The words “Free Umar Khalid” have increasingly acquired a legal significance that extends beyond the identity of one individual or the political controversy surrounding the 2020 Delhi riots. Senior Advocate Vrinda Grover, speaking recently on the continuing incarceration of student activist Umar Khalid, described the expression as a valid statement for those who understand the Constitution and believe in democracy. Her argument was not presented merely as a demand for the release of a particular accused person. It was framed around a more fundamental constitutional proposition: whether a democratic society can regard a demand for liberty as illegitimate merely because…

The Central Government has formally notified a new regulatory framework under which banks and system providers cannot impose direct or indirect charges on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions up to ₹2,000 or on payments made through RuPay-powered debit cards. The notification issued by the Ministry of Finance on September 14, 2026, under Section 10A of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, marks an important development in the legal and economic architecture of India’s digital payments system. At first sight, the notification may appear to be a straightforward consumer-protection measure ensuring that small-value digital payments remain free. Its legal significance,…

The Supreme Court has clarified an important aspect of criminal trial procedure concerning the consequences of an omission to frame a particular charge, holding that an accused can, in appropriate circumstances, be convicted for an offence for which no formal charge was framed, provided the unframed offence is cognate or minor in relation to the charge actually faced and the accused had a fair opportunity to defend the allegations constituting that offence. The Bench of Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice N.V. Anjaria, while deciding Pynchemalangaki Bareh v. State of Meghalaya, drew a careful distinction between a technical omission…

On Hindi Diwas, the Supreme Court of India announced a new public information initiative intended to take judicial communication beyond the conventional boundaries of legal documents. The Court will soon provide simple Hindi summaries of selected important judgments and orders and will also introduce a daily Hindi audio and video bulletin of approximately 15 to 30 minutes explaining significant judicial decisions, their implications and the further course of action arising from them. The initiative is intended particularly to make the work of the Supreme Court more accessible to ordinary citizens, litigants and persons with disabilities, with the Court indicating that…

The Supreme Court has clarified the operation of Section 7(5) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 in multi-contract transactions, holding that an arbitration clause contained in one agreement can be incorporated into another instrument that does not independently contain an arbitration clause where the contractual documents are expressly designed to operate as parts of one composite transaction. The ruling in National Skill Development Corporation v. Surya Wires Private Limited & Ors. is significant because it demonstrates that the absence of a separate arbitration clause in a personal guarantee is not, by itself, decisive where the contractual architecture unmistakably incorporates…