Retrospective Amendment Archives

Legislative Intent or Error: Puzzle of Indian Tax Policy

April 2, 2025June 24, 2025

Introductory Questions Let me start with a question: how does one discover legislative intent in a provision of tax statute? Through a plain reading of the provision or through a subsequent statement by the State’s legal counsel stating its intent? Positivist thinking would point us to the former, and rightly… Read More »

Machinery Provisions Brook No Vested Rights: Supreme Court Holds that Amendment to Section 153C, IT Act, 1961 is Retrospective

May 17, 2023August 1, 2023

On 6 April 2023, a Division Bench of the Supreme Court in Vikram Bhatia case[1], held that the amendment to Section 153C, IT Act, 1961 was retrospective in nature and would be applicable to searches conducted even before the date of amendment, i.e., 1.06.2015. The Supreme Court’s decision is another example of… Read More »