Deeming Fiction vs. Evidentiary Reality: CESTAT Mumbai Limits Rule 17(2) Of Pan Masala Packing Machines Rules

A tussle between Fiction and Fact: Unravelling the tension in Capacity-Based TaxationThere is a continuous struggle surrounding the jurisprudence on capacity-based taxation to reconcile the statutory deeming provisions with the underlying factual matrix. The recent decision of the CESTAT Mumbai Bench, as elucidated in Zemini Marketing Company v. Commissioner of CGST, Kolhapur Excise Appeal No. 86026, 86030, 86031, 86032, 86033, 86036, 86037, 86038, 86039 of 2013, highlights a significant...

From Pandemic Protectionism To Strategic Liberalisation: India's FDI Shift Under Press Note 3 Amendment 2026

Among the most important and impactful regulatory decisions in the recent times in terms of the impact on the Indian foreign investment regime is the Press Note 3 (2020 Series) FDI Policy issued by the Government of India in 2020. The policy was issued during the COVID-19 pandemic with the objective of protecting Indian companies from opportunistic acquisitions by investors from countries that share a land border with India.The policy significantly modified the Indian regulatory framework of...

Asset Reconstruction Companies In India: High-Handedness, Judicial Reckoning, And Regulatory Reform

Anyone of us who have appeared before a Debt Recovery Tribunal, a High Court, or the NCLT in a Non-Performing Asset matter has, at some point, encountered an Asset Reconstruction Company on the other side of the record. They arrived with an ambitious mandate: to clean the Indian banking system's distressed debt backlog through professional, non-adjudicatory enforcement, free from the delays that frustrated bank-led recovery for decades. The Narasimham Committee I (1991) and Narasimham Committee...

Deconstructing 2026 FEMA Amendments: Permitting Developers Raising ECB For Construction-Development Projects To Sell Plots Of Land

The Domestic BottleneckFor decades, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has maintained a stringent regulatory perimeter around real estate financing, effectively isolating domestic credit markets from speculative land acquisitions. Under the RBI's Master Circulars on Housing Finance, domestic lenders are strictly prohibited from funding pure land acquisitions for private builders. This constraint has historically been mirrored in the External Commercial Borrowing (ECB) framework, where "real estate...

Insolvency, Sovereignty and Spectrum: Locating IBC Within Constitutional Order

Beyond a Sectoral DisputeThe Supreme Court's recent decision in State Bank of India v. Union of India [2026 Livelaw (SC) 152] will inevitably be described as a telecom ruling. It is more than that. At its heart lies a question that goes to the architecture of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC): when a corporate debtor enters the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP), what is the juridical character of the rights it holds, and which of those rights constitute part of the...

From Finality To Flexibility: Post-Gayatri Balasamy Jurisprudence In Indian Arbitration (2025)

The Hon'ble Justice M.N. Venkatachaliah in his speech “Keeping the Spirit of the Common Law Alive”, once said that “Flexibility is the prime virtue of common law. The genius of common law lies in its capacity for evolution and adaptability, as well as its resilience to cope with the demands of the times.”[1] This statement fits well within Indian arbitration jurisprudence. Last year, a constitutional bench of the Supreme Court pronounced the decision of Gayatri Balasamy v. ISG Novasoft...

CCI v. Swapan Dey: Who Decides Exclusivity Or Exclusion?

When does the exercise of patent rights become an antitrust violation? The apex court is now poised to answer a question that remains at the intersection of “innovation in a healthy competitive market” and “market regulation.” Recently, in Competition Commission of India v. Swapan Dey & Another,[1] the Supreme Court (SC) has stepped into a core jurisdictional conflict to determine whether the Competition Commission of India (CCI), the chief national antitrust regulator in India, can...

Beyond Kartavya: Union Budget 2026 And The Legal Quietude

The Union Budget is no longer a neutral fiscal statement confined to revenue and expenditure. It has become a central instrument through which governance priorities are asserted, social choices are structured, and constitutional values are indirectly shaped. Union Budget 2026-27 must therefore be read not merely as an economic exercise, but as a document of constitutional consequence. Its language, silences and emphases reveal how fiscal authority is exercised, how accountability is framed and...

Judgments That Shaped the Landscape for Customs' New Baggage Rules In Union Budget 2026-27

The Central government has proposed changes to Customs rules governing baggage clearance during international travel to address passenger concerns and align duty-free allowances with current market realities.The move is significant keeping in mind the rising disputes between passengers and Customs Department landing before Courts, mostly concerning the erstwhile Baggage Rules 2016, permissible limits of valuable goods that one may bring to the country, the procedure followed by Customs officers...

Arbitrating With Non-Signatories After Cox And Kings: Practice, Procedure, And Risk Management

Executive Summary The Group of Companies Doctrine is valid in Indian law, but its application requires proof of implied consent—not mere corporate affiliation. The Supreme Court's Constitution Bench inCoxand Kings Ltd. v. SAP India Pvt. Ltd. (2023)1 has authoritatively settled that a non-signatory can be bound to an arbitration agreement only where evidence demonstrates: (i) the non-signatory played a positive, direct, and substantial role in the negotiation, performance, or...

Appeal Without Remedy: GST Appellate System's Fatal Flaw

When the Goods and Services Tax (GST) launched in July 2017, policymakers hailed it as a "good and simple tax" to streamline compliance and unify India's fractured indirect tax landscape. Eight years later, however, a glaring procedural defect in its appellate framework forces taxpayers into a grim dilemma: accept flawed orders or endure endless restarts. Under Section 107(11) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, appellate authorities can confirm, modify, or annul appealed orders—but...

From Vodafone To Tiger Global — A Constitutional Reset

The recent Supreme Court ruling in the Tiger Global matter marks a decisive shift in Indian international tax jurisprudence, which for over a decade had been shaped by the Court's landmark decision in Vodafone International Holdings BV v. Union of India (2012). The Vodafone era entrenched the primacy of legal form, situs of shares and treaty protection in offshore exit transactions, effectively enabling large-scale exits of India-centric businesses without Indian capital gains taxation,...