Unit 1 of Law of Taxation (syllabus: Module 1 — history of tax law in India, constitutional provisions on taxation, the nature and scope of tax, and the basic definitions: person, assessee, tax year, income, total income, agricultural income, tax evasion and tax avoidance). Below: what the unit covers, the provisions it turns on, and the cases an examiner expects you to name.
What this unit covers
- Why does every tax question begin with the question of power rather than the question of amount?
- How is taxing power distributed between the Union and the States, and what did the goods and services tax change?
- What is the difference between a tax, a fee and a special assessment?
- What is the difference between a direct and an indirect tax?
- What is the tax year, and what happened to the previous year and the assessment year?
- How wide is the word income, and how do the courts fix its outer limit?
- When is a receipt agricultural income, and why is the question really about legislative power?
- Where is the line between tax evasion, tax avoidance and tax planning?
Treat that list as a self-test: recite each topic's rule from memory before you open its cases.
Provisions
- Constitution of India, s. Article 265
- Constitution of India, s. Articles 246, 246A, 248 and the Seventh Schedule
- Income-tax Act, 2025, s. Sections 3 and 536(3)
- Income-tax Act, 2025, s. Section 2(49)
- Income-tax Act, 2025, s. Section 2(5) with section 11 and Schedule II
- Income-tax Act, 2025, s. Chapter XI, sections 178 to 184
Leading cases
- C.I.T. v. G.R. Karthikeyan
- C.I.T. v. Benoy Kumar Sahas Roy
- Vodafone International Holdings B.V. v. Union of India
Full case summaries
- C.I.T. v. G.R. Karthikeyan (1993)
- C.I.T. v. Benoy Kumar Sahas Roy (1957)
- Vodafone International Holdings B.V. v. Union of India (2012)
- McDowell and Company Ltd. v. CTO (1985)