Supreme Court Dismisses Hundreds of Tax Cases After 'Rs 1 Crore' CBDT Circular
New Delhi: In the last one month, the Supreme Court has dismissed hundreds of cases in which the tax effects were less than Rs 1 crore.
A bench headed by Justice AK Sikri relied upon the July circular by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to put an end to scores of tax cases.
The CBDT circular fixed the threshold limit for filing appeal in the Supreme Court at over Rs 1 crore and stated that pending appeals or special leave petitions (SLPs) should be withdrawn "on priority" to enable the department to focus on high value litigation.
Taking into account this circular, the bench led by Justice Sikri decided to proactively cut down such appeals pending before the apex court. The court, by one such order recently, wrapped up more than 200 cases in one brush.
"The Registry has listed these matters on the ground that the tax effect is less than Rs 1 crore and, therefore, as per the Circular of the CBDT, these are not pressed by the Income Tax Department and are to be dismissed on the ground of low tax effect," noted the bench.
The order added: "In these appeals the tax effect is less than Rs 1 crore and are covered by the Circular of CBDT. These appeals are, accordingly, dismissed. However, it will be open to the Income-Tax Department to seek review in any of these matters, if it is pointed out that the tax effect is more than Rs 1 crore."
Similar orders have been passed in hundreds of cases to give a quietus to the tax cases.
The court has further directed the registry to maintain a separate list of cases where the assessees have moved in appeals and also another list where although the tax effect is less than Rs 1 crore, the cases said to be not covered by the CBDT circular.
Under the exception clause, notwithstanding the tax effect, taxmen can file appeals in cases that involve foreign black money or accounts, cases challenging constitutional validity of IT Act provisions, where rules issued by the tax department were held to be illegal, cases involving additions based on inputs received from other investigative agencies, or where the tax department has initiated prosecution.
Courtesy: www.news18.com
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FIR filed after e-commerce platform linked tech firm alleges SMS spoofing fraud
Bengaluru (PTI): An FIR has been registered against unknown people for allegedly sending fraudulent messages in the name of an e-commerce platform with promises of cash rewards, further disrupting its operations, police said on Wednesday.
The offence is said to have taken place between April 23 and April 27, they said.
A representative of city-based technology company Hiveloop Technology Pvt Ltd (HTPL), part of the Udaan group (eB2B platform), has lodged a complaint alleging a large-scale SMS spoofing fraud following which a detailed investigation has been initiated into the matter, a senior police officer said.
According to the FIR, HTPL is a registered entity on the TRAI-mandated DLT platform, which permits only pre-approved SMS templates and whitelisted URLs to be sent through authorised sender IDs.
The issue came to light on April 23, when HTPL received alerts from buyers about fraudulent SMS messages appearing to originate from the company's sender ID "UDAANN". The messages reportedly contained Bitly links and falsely claimed a credit of Rs 10,001, urging recipients to withdraw money, it said.
On April 27, at around 12:49 pm, the DLT platform blacklisted HTPL's SMS templates, citing their alleged use in sending fraudulent messages. Within minutes, the company's sender ID was also blacklisted. Airtel's DLT system subsequently confirmed the action and shared details of the fraudulent messages that were circulated in HTPL's name without its knowledge or consent, the FIR stated.
Following this, the company's messaging operations were affected, and even legitimate communications such as one-time passwords to buyers began failing. Later, the DLT operator suspended HTPL's entire account following complaints raised on TRAI's Chakshu platform, bringing all SMS services of the company to a halt, it further stated.
HTPL has stated that neither it nor its authorised vendors sent the fraudulent messages. The links embedded in the messages reportedly redirected users to an online betting website, the FIR stated.
The company has claimed that the incident has resulted in a complete breakdown of SMS-based services, including buyer authentication, order updates and promotional communication, leading to significant financial losses.
At least 13 victims have been identified so far, with the possibility of more affected users. Victims were allegedly directed to an online betting platform, raising concerns of potential financial fraud, the FIR added.
