Worldwide: Court Procedure

The Calcutta High Court has ruled on a critical procedural question in GST law: when goods are detained under Section 129 of the CGST Act, must authorities first determine who owns the goods before ordering their release? The Department had challenged the ownership, quality, and authenticity of tax documents for a detained consignment, raising questions about the scope of adjudication required at this stage.

This newsletter examines landmark Supreme Court judgments from May 2026 across arbitration, civil law, criminal procedure, insolvency, and white-collar crime. The cases address critical questions including judicial intervention in arbitral proceedings, inter-state taxation of natural gas sales, benami property transactions, delays in judgment pronouncement, resolution plan compliance, and multiplicity of FIRs in economic offences.

The effectiveness of Tax Collection at Source (TCS) under Section 52 of the CGST Act, 2017 is called into question due to a critical legislative gap. While e-commerce operators are obligated to collect tax from suppliers using their platforms, the statute provides no express recovery mechanism in case of default. This analysis examines whether the absence of such provisions renders Section 52 unenforceable, and explores the legal implications when operators fail to collect and remit the mandated amounts.