In Brief
The Supreme Court dismissed civil appeals challenging tax authorities' decisions to impose timeframe conditions on delivery of goods from carriers for inter-state sales. The Court held that tax authorities cannot add conditions to statutory provisions beyond what the legislature has explicitly enacted. Specifically, the benefit of Section 6(2) of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 cannot be made conditional on delivery deadlines not prescribed in the statute itself. The Court reaffirmed that administrative bodies must interpret laws as written and cannot cure perceived legislative gaps through their own interpretations.
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