The Bengaluru tribunal order
On 30 December 2024 a bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) in Bengaluru issued an order in the case of Buckeye Trust, a dispute over whether an interest in a partnership firm transferred into a trust was taxable. The order relied on three Supreme Court judgments and one Madras High Court judgment.
Those judgments could not be found in any official record. Within about a week, on 7 January 2025, the tribunal recalled the order, citing inadvertent errors, and the appeal was listed for a fresh hearing. News reports linked the non-existent citations to an AI chat tool used in preparing submissions; that link was reported, not officially confirmed.
What it teaches every professional
- Format is not proof. A citation in the right format, with a believable case name, looks exactly like a real one. Only looking it up proves it exists.
- Everyone in the chain assumes someone else checked. Errors pass through drafts, submissions and reviews when each person trusts the previous step.
- The cost falls on the work, not the tool. The order was recalled and reheard: time, money and credibility lost.
Chapter 4: Verify
Verification is a skill, not a mood. A short routine for sources, numbers, dates and quotes catches most errors in minutes, and the Bengaluru tribunal case shows the cost of skipping it.
- Verify sources, numbers, dates and quotes efficiently
- Decide how deeply to verify
- Learn from a real Indian case where verification failed
This article is adapted from the book. Examples marked “Example” use invented names and numbers; company stories are based on public sources listed in the book. For general learning; use your own judgement for your situation.
