Apex Court draws the Fiscal Red Line

J the app takes a look. The Supreme Court’s decision in Supreme Court of India in Adani Power Limited v. Union of India (judgment dated 5 January 2026) is a landmark pronouncement on the constitutional limits of delegated taxation and the legal architecture governing Special Economic Zones. The case transcended a routine dispute over customs duty on electricity supplied from an SEZ to the Domestic Tariff Area and evolved into a searching examination of whether the executive can, through successive notifications, sustain a levy that has already been declared ultra vires. In resolving this controversy, the Court reaffirmed foundational principles of fiscal law, namely, that taxation must rest on clear legislative authority, that exemption powers cannot be converted into charging provisions, and that final judicial declarations bind both the executive and coordinate courts. The judgment thus stands as a decisive reaffirmation of constitutional discipline, judicial precedent, and the rule of law in fiscal governance.