Supreme Court Redraws The Tax Line On Amalgamations

The Supreme Court's judgment in Jindal Equipment Leasing Consultancy Services Ltd. v. Commissioner of Income Tax (2026) Livelaw (SC) 37 arrives with a seeming contradiction. It simultaneously widens the net of business-income taxation while raising the evidentiary drawbridge the Revenue must cross to haul it in. This is its defining feature. The decision performs a decisive...

Crossing A Line : BCI Chairperson's Letter Against Kerala High Court Judge For Questioning Nomination Fee Hike Is Unwarranted

Recently, the Bar Council of India's Chairman, Senior Advocate Manan Kumar Mishra, wrote a letter to the Chief Justice of India, Surya Kant, taking serious objections to the critical remarks made by the Kerala High Court against the Rs. 1.25 lakh nomination fee charged for contesting State Bar Council Elections. He termed the remarks made by the judge as “certain baseless and reckless oral observations” and even threatened to pursue the transfer of the judge.The Kerala High Court was hearing a...

Reclaiming The Soul Of Legal Education: A Case For Litigation-Centred Training

In today's rapidly commercialised academic environment, legal education, more particularly in private law colleges, is increasingly drifting away from its foundational purpose. Under the growing apparent influences of corporate houses and market-driven metrics, many institutions are orienting law graduates almost exclusively towards corporate legal roles. While corporate law is undeniably a legitimate and necessary domain, the disproportionate emphasis on it has come at a heavy cost: the erosion...

Between Method And Outcome: Did SC Reclaim Dynamic Interpretation In Khalid And Imam's Case?

The constitutional guarantee of liberty serves as both a moral compass and a guiding principle for any functioning democracy. Yet, Section 43D(5) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA) reveals a persistent tension between state security and individual freedom. This provision severely restricts judicial discretion to grant bail, forbidding it where there are “reasonable grounds” to believe the accusations are “prima facie” true. In practice, this has made bail nearly impossible...

Desecrating The Constitution

The week that has just gone by witnessed the Governors of three southern States-Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka- where there are governments of parties different from the party of the Union government defying the Constitution by refusing to deliver the Opening Address at the commencement of the legislative session almost triggering a constitutional crisis. The Constitution in Art 87 (1) and 176(1) provides that the Head of State-President/Governor shall address the first session of...

The Governor's Address Under Article 176: A Ceremonial Duty, Not A Discretionary Power

Recently, on 20th January, dramatic scenes in two state assemblies raised serious questions about the scope of the Governor's powers, which need to be urgently addressed. In Kerala, Governor R.V. Arlekar deviated from the cabinet-approved budget (policy declaration) speech, omitting passages critical of the Centre's fiscal policies and even inserting a phrase my government believes that shifted the language from the elected government's voice to his own. Additionally, in the case of Tamil...

When Prolonged Incarceration Fails The Bail Test

Who decides when liberty becomes constitutionally intolerable, and by what measure?In Judgment denying bail to Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, a Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice N.V. Anjaria has not merely rejected two individual applications. It has articulated a new grammar for bail under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, one that recalibrates how prolonged incarceration, prima facie scrutiny, and judicial restraint are to be understood.The Judgment...

Iran And The Unprecedented Catastrophe: Beyond The Narratives

Iran's current turmoil is often narrated as a story of domestic collapse, economic distress, governance deficits and popular unrest rooted in authoritarian rule. These realities are undeniable and have imposed severe costs on ordinary Iranians. Inflation, unemployment, currency collapse and violent repression of dissent have created conditions of sustained social exhaustion. Yet when this framing is presented in isolation, it obscures a deeper and more unsettling truth: Iran's political and...

Venezuela And The Limits Of International Law's Hollow Core

The recent interventionist posture adopted by the United States in Venezuela has laid bare a truth long articulated by critics of international law but seldom confronted with such clarity: when confronted with hegemonic will, international law ceases to function as a constraint and survives only as rhetoric. What is unfolding in Venezuela is not merely a regional crisis or a contested foreign policy decision; it is a case study in the structural futility of international law when power decides...

Beyond The TRC: A Veil-Piercing Moment In International Tax Law

The Supreme Court's judgment in Authority for Advance Rulings (Income Tax) & others v. Tiger Global International Holdings 2026 LiveLaw (SC) 50 marks a moment where the long-standing tension in Indian tax law between form and substance is not merely acknowledged, but decisively addressed. Quietly, and without theatrics, the Court applies to international tax law an instinct long familiar...

Is An Insolvency Professional A 'Public Servant' Under The Prevention Of Corruption Act, 1988?

India's Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC), relies on Insolvency Professionals (IPs) or Resolution Professionals (RPs) as neutral persons for distressed entities and creditors to maximise the output value of stressed assets. IPs' discretion over billions in assets is fuelled with multiple corruption allegations. Hence, to invoke the stringent Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (PC...

Order XXI Rule 102 And The Limits Of Pendente Lite Transfers In Execution

The law of execution often reveals the real gap between paper rights and ground reality. A decree may declare who is entitled to property, but its actual value is tested only when possession is sought. Over the years, courts have struggled to prevent decree holders from being dragged into endless litigation by persons who enter the scene only after a suit is filed. In recent months, the Supreme Court revisited this problem through two important rulings on Order XXI Rule 102 of the Code of Civil...