Legal Insights & Commentary — Dixit Legal, Lucknow
Plain-language guides to tax, GST, property and succession law — and to recent developments affecting taxpayers and businesses in Uttar Pradesh. By Advocate S.C. Dixit, Lucknow High Court.
On 26 October 2026 CBIC issued Circular No. 258/04/2026-GST on demand, adjudication and appeal proceedings. A notice should quantify the demand, split it year-wise where it spans several years, and disclose the material behind any allegation of fraud or suppression; hearings, reasoned orders, rectification and first appeals are covered too. A checklist for reading the notice in your hands.
GST LawSection 67(2) lets GST officers seize goods liable to confiscation and documents, books or things useful for proceedings. Cash is "money", which the Act keeps out of "goods". In rulings reported in September and October 2026, the Rajasthan and Gauhati High Courts held that a GST search does not authorise the seizure of cash.
GST LawSection 107 gives three months to appeal from the date a GST order is communicated — not the date it is uploaded. On 12 October 2026 the Bombay High Court revived an appeal rejected as time-barred because the order sat in the portal's "Additional Notices and Orders" tab; the Allahabad High Court's Lucknow Bench has quashed demand and recovery orders on the same ground.
GST LawOn 8 October 2026 the 57th GST Council recommended omitting the arrest power in Section 69, raising the prosecution threshold from ₹1 crore to ₹5 crore, a ₹10,000 floor for show cause notices, a 5% penalty for prompt payment in non-fraud cases and a ₹10,000 cap on the general penalty. None of it is law yet. What each proposal would change, and what to do with a notice, summons or demand that is already in hand.
Income TaxOn 28 September 2026, two days before the deadline, the CBDT moved the tax audit report date for AY 2026-27 to 21 October 2026 and the return date for audit cases to 21 November 2026. The circular is two sentences long. What it covers, what it is silent on — Section 234A interest among them — and the Section 271B penalty notice that still follows a missed date.
GST LawA penalty-only notice under Section 122 carries no tax demand — only a penalty that can equal the whole credit alleged to be wrong. For years no proper officer had been assigned to issue it. A CBIC circular of 27 October 2025 fixed monetary limits for central officers; the Lucknow Bench upheld a Deputy Commissioner of State Tax on 10 August 2026; the Supreme Court stayed that judgment on 7 September 2026. What to check in the notice, and when the objection must be taken.
GST LawThe Allahabad High Court has held that scrutiny of returns under Section 61 and Rule 99 is not a mandatory precondition to every Section 74A show cause notice — but it left a caveat that matters. Where the officer holds only return-based material and no independent source, the missing ASMT-10 is still a live point. What to check in the notice before pleading it.
GST LawSections 73(5) and 73(6) — and Section 74A(8)(i) for FY 2024-25 onward — bar the officer from issuing a notice for tax paid before service, and for any penalty on it. The relief is real, but it attaches to the payment plus a written intimation in Form DRC-03, not to the reversal alone. A GSTAT bench looked at exactly this fact pattern on 2 September 2026.
Income TaxChapter IV of the Finance Act, 2026 created a one-time route to regularise foreign assets and foreign income that never reached a return. The rules and forms were notified on 14 August 2026, the Scheme opened on 16 August, and declarations close on 31 December 2026. Two routes, two very different prices — and an immunity that is narrower than it first reads.
GST LawOn 24 August 2026 the Jharkhand High Court set aside GST orders passed against a proprietor who had died in 2019, restating a rule the Allahabad High Court had already laid down: an order against a dead person is a nullity. But Section 93 of the CGST Act keeps the liability alive against the estate — which is why the family's response matters more than the defect.
Tax LitigationOn 25 August 2026 the Supreme Court set aside a Section 74 show cause notice and the order that followed it, holding that the five-year extended limitation cannot be unlocked by reciting fraud or suppression — the foundational facts must appear in the notice itself. What that means for an old GST demand in Uttar Pradesh.
GST LawSection 67(4) lets a GST officer seal premises only where access is denied, and only while the search is running. A Gauhati High Court order of 10 August 2026 holds that keeping an office under seal for four months after the search was illegal, and quashes a Form GST INS-03 prohibition order covering laptops, files and office equipment.
GST LawThe same disputed tax attracts a penalty of 10% under Section 73 and a penalty equal to the entire tax under Section 74. Courts have held that the higher provision cannot be invoked unless fraud or suppression is expressly alleged — but a recent Gauhati High Court order is a reminder that the place to raise it is the reply, not a writ petition.
GST LawInspection, search and seizure are three separate powers under Section 67, and the authorisation in Form GST INS-01 must say which one is being exercised. A recent High Court order also restates when a DRC-03 filed during a search is treated as involuntary and refundable.
GST LawA proviso that took effect on 1 October 2025 requires 10% of the penalty to be deposited before you can appeal an order that demands penalty without any tax. Two recent decisions hold that it does not apply where the show-cause notice pre-dates that day.
Income TaxCBDT notified Form ITR-BN on 24 July 2026 for block assessments arising out of searches under the Income-tax Act, 2025. Which form applies depends entirely on the date of the search — and the return, once filed, cannot be revised.
GST LawCancelling a GST registration does not end the liability for earlier periods — so notices keep coming. But a person whose registration is cancelled can no longer work on the common portal, and the Allahabad High Court has held that in that situation a notice merely uploaded to the portal denies a reasonable opportunity to be heard.
GST LawWhen a consignment is intercepted at a UP check-post and detained under Section 129 of the CGST Act, the penalty can dwarf the tax and the clock runs in seven-day steps. Here is how the provision works and why intent to evade tax still decides many cases.
GST LawA 10 July 2026 GSTAT advisory lets taxpayers generate a Token ID before 31 July 2026 to preserve their place in the appeal queue, with 60 days to complete the filing. Here is how the mechanism actually works.
Income TaxCBDT's 4 June 2026 guidelines set six categories — CS 01 to CS 06 — for compulsory complete scrutiny of income-tax returns, with notices due by 30 June 2026. Here is what each category means and what a notice does and doesn't imply.
Income TaxForm 24Q has become Form 138 and Form 26Q has become Form 140 under the Income-tax Rules 2026. The very first quarterly TDS statement in the new format, for April-June 2026, falls due 31 July 2026 — and it is not the same deadline as your AY 2026-27 income-tax return.
ComplianceA GSTN advisory dated 17 June 2026 makes the Ship-to GSTIN field mandatory in e-Invoice and e-Way Bill APIs from 1 August 2026, and introduces a new voluntary e-Way Bill closure facility. Here is what changes and who must act before the deadline.
Income TaxFor decades, 31 July was the ITR deadline for almost everyone. The Finance Act, 2026 has split it into four dates for AY 2026-27 — and assuming the wrong one can cost you.
Tax LitigationFinance Act 2026 inserted Section 292BA, retrospectively from October 2019, so a DIN-quoting defect no longer automatically invalidates an income-tax assessment. Here is what it protects, and what it still leaves open to challenge.
GST LawThe GST Appellate Tribunal is finally operational. If you are sitting on an unfavourable first-appeal order from before April 2026, the transitional window to appeal closes on 31 July 2026.
Legal InsightReceived a GST Show Cause Notice in Lucknow? Advocate S.C. Dixit explains your rights, reply timelines, common grounds, and how to mount an effective defence. Expert GST lawyer at Lucknow High Court.
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