HON’BLE SUPREME COURT · SOURCE-REVIEWED NOTE
Union of India and Others v. Gautam Khaitan
Criminal Appeal No. 1563 of 2019
[2019] 13 SCR 721 ·
Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015: sections 1(3), 2(9)(d), 3, 10, 50, 51, 55, 59, 72, 85 and 86 · Income-tax Act, 1961: sections 6 and 139
Holding and result. At the interim stage, the Court held that the commencement change enabled the one-time declaration window and did not retrospectively apply the penal provisions; it set aside the High Court restraint, but left the writ petition and underlying merits for the High Court to decide uninfluenced by these observations.
Sources & disclosures includedDownload original judgment / order
Three-judge bench; judgment delivered by B. R. Gavai, J. · Arun Mishra, J. · M. R. Shah, J. · B. R. Gavai, J.
Assessment years: 2019-20
01 · Facts of the case
The Delhi High Court restrained the authorities from acting on a 22 January 2019 sanction under section 55. It considered the 1 July 2015 order under sections 85 and 86 to have made the Act and its penal provisions retrospectively applicable. The Union challenged that interim restraint; the assessment year under consideration was 2019-20, with previous year ending 31 March 2019.
02 · Discussion by the Hon’ble Court
Sections 3 and 2(9)(d) charged tax only for assessment years beginning on or after 1 April 2016, while valuing an overseas asset in the relevant previous year. Section 59 offered a one-time declaration ending 30 September 2015, with tax and penalty due by 31 December 2015. Moving commencement to 1 July 2015 removed the anomaly that the declaration window otherwise would have closed before statutory commencement; sections 50 and 51 operated only after failure to use that opportunity and to disclose and pay.
Source: Primary judgment: reasoning
03 · Judicial decision
For purposes of reviewing the interim order, the commencement change was a removal-of-difficulties measure enabling the declaration window, not retrospective application of the penal provisions. The High Court’s contrary basis for restraint was legally unsustainable.
Source: Primary judgment: holdings
04 · Outcome / in whose favour
The appeal was allowed and the interim restraint set aside. The High Court was requested to decide the writ petition on its own merits, uninfluenced by the Supreme Court’s observations, which were expressly limited to testing the interim order.
05 · AKHB REVIEW POINT
AKHB analysis: preserve the decision’s procedural boundary. The useful statutory method is to reconcile commencement, charging year, valuation year, declaration deadline and penal trigger together; the result here does not decide the respondent’s final liability or foreclose arguments reserved for the writ court.
Source & verification
Download original judgment / order · Open cited source rendition
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Statutory scope
Historical statutory provisions are described as they appeared in the report. Verify the current enactment, amendments and later judicial treatment before reliance.
Later treatment
Source checked 2026-10-12. No comprehensive later-treatment or present-law clearance is represented. The note reports the historical statutory text and result in this primary report only.
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AI disclosure & professional disclaimer
This AKHB research note was prepared with AI assistance from the identified primary report and has not been represented as independently human-reviewed.
General legal and tax research only; not legal or tax advice. Verify the complete judgment, governing statutory version and subsequent judicial treatment before reliance. The AKHB REVIEW POINT is editorial analysis, not the Court's holding, and no current-law clearance is claimed.