Police Can Investigate SCRA Offences But Cannot Take Cognizance Through Report: Gujarat High Court

The Gujarat High Court on 27 July held that while police can investigate cognizable offences under the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956 (SCRA), courts cannot take cognizance of such offences on the basis of a police report and must act only on a complaint filed by the competent authority. A Bench of Justice P.M. Raval partly allowed a petition seeking quashing of an FIR alleging illegal “dabba trading” and quashed the proceedings relating to offences under Sections 406 and 420 of the...

Gujarat High Court Rejects Plea Against Tribunal Order Granting VAT Exemption For Seeds Used For Sowing

The Gujarat High Court has dismissed the State's plea against Western Agri Seeds Ltd., ruling that the state failed to prove the company's seeds were not used for sowing and were therefore outside the scope of the Value Added Tax exemption notification. "The petitioner Department has miserably failed to prove before us that the seeds which are procured by the respondents are not used for sowing purposes," the court observed while upholding the Gujarat VAT tribunal's decision to quash...

Retrospective Property Tax Demands Invalid Under GPMC Act: Gujarat High Court

The Gujarat High Court has held that the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) could not retrospectively revise the rateable value of a property and demand property tax years after the relevant assessment period had ended, ruling that such demands were contrary to the Gujarat Provincial Municipal Corporations Act, 1949, and the Taxation Rules framed under it."Having regard to the statutory provisions and rules thereunder, demand of taxes on the basis of revised rateable value with retrospective...

Gujarat High Court Sets Aside Order Restraining Trademark Owners From Using Own Mark, Calls It 'Grave Error'

The Gujarat High court has set aside a temporary injunction restraining the registered proprietors of the trademark "Aditya Jewellers" from using their own registered mark, ruling that the Commercial court in Rajkot committed "a grave error of law" by granting the relief. The court observed that the trial court had assessed the reliability of the appellants' evidence at the interim stage, even though "no mini trial can be conducted" while deciding an application for temporary injunction.A...

Gujarat High Court Reiterates Trade Associations Can Qualify As Charitable Institutions Under Income Tax Act

The Gujarat High court has recently upheld an Income Tax Appellate tribunal order directing the Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemptions) to reconsider a trade association's application for registration as a charitable institution.It held that trade promotion bodies established to advance trade and commerce can qualify as charitable institutions under the "general public utility" category of the Income Tax Act.A division bench of Justice Bhargav D. Karia and Justice Pranav Trivedi said the...

Income Tax Act | Trustee's Shareholding Doesn't Make Public Trust A 'Concern' Under Deemed Dividend Provision: Gujarat High Court

The Gujarat High Court has recently held that a public trust cannot be treated as a "concern" under the deemed dividend provisions of the Income Tax Act (Section 2(22)(e)) merely because its trustee holds substantial shares in the lending company. Holding that the legal fiction created by the provision cannot be stretched to cover such trusts, the court observed, "The word "concern" used under the Act in such Explanation, which encompasses a Hindu Undivided Family (HUF), or a firm, or an...

Three Days To Reply To Income Tax SCN Not Reasonable: Gujarat High Court Quashes Assessment

The Gujarat High Court recently held that granting a taxpayer only three days to respond to an income tax show cause notice does not amount to a reasonable opportunity of hearing and violates the principles of natural justice.Setting aside an income tax assessment order passed after scrutiny proceedings, a Division Bench of Justice A.S. Supehia and Justice Vaibhavi D. Nanavati observed, "Thus, in view of the settled legal position, granting only three days' time to file a reply cannot be said to...

Gujarat High Court Quashes Reassessment Notice Issued Beyond COVID-Era TOLA Deadline

The Gujarat High Court has quashed a reassessment notice issued under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act, holding that it was issued beyond the "surviving time" available under the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation and Amendment of Certain Provisions) Act, 2020 (TOLA), as interpreted by the Supreme Court in Union of India v. Rajeev Bansal.TOLA was enacted to extend statutory timelines for tax and other legal proceedings during the COVID-19 pandemic.A Division Bench of Justice A.S. Supehia and...

Letters Patent Appeal Not Maintainable Against Single Judge's Order Under Trade Marks Act: Gujarat High Court

The Gujarat High Court has ecently held that a Letters Patent Appeal (LPA), an intra-court appeal before a Division Bench, is not maintainable against a Single Judge's decision in a statutory appeal under Section 91 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999.Holding so, the Division Bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice D.N. Ray said such appeals are barred by Section 100A of the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC), read with Clause 15 of the Letters Patent. The bench also held that Parliament's...

Gujarat High Court Faults CESTAT For 'Difficult To Decipher' Remand Order In Customs Classification Dispute

The Gujarat High Court has recently set aside a CESTAT order remanding a customs classification dispute, questioning how the tribunal directed the adjudicating authority to re-examine CBEC circulars despite an earlier Gujarat High Court judgment requiring the Union of India to undertake that exercise."We fail to understand how the Tribunal, in the facts of the present case, adopted the very same directions and remanded the matter to the Adjudicating Authority to re-look into the said Circulars,...

Gujarat High Court Upholds Rule Requiring Agricultural Science Degree For Agricultural Land Valuers

The Gujarat High Court has recently upheld the constitutional validity of the requirement that applicants seeking registration as valuers of agricultural land must possess a degree in Agricultural Science. It held that the qualification bears a rational nexus with the object sought to be achieved under Rule 8A of the Wealth Tax Rules, 1957, and does not violate Articles 14 or 19 of the Constitution. "We find neither any ambiguity in the impugned provision nor any inconsistency between the...

Income Tax Amendment Of 2012 Allowing Officers To Dispute Any Property Value Not Retroactive: Gujarat High Court

The Gujarat High Court ruled that the 2012 amendment to Section 55A(a) of the Income Tax Act, which expanded the Assessing Officer's power to refer capital assets for valuation, cannot be applied retrospectively.The court ruled that assessments relating to the period prior to 1 July 2012 would continue to be governed by the unamended provision and, on that basis, quashed a reassessment notice issued to the assessee.A Division Bench of Justice A.S. Supehia and Justice Vaibhavi D. Nanavati passed...