Stats reveal Vodafone was destined to win

International Tax Review is part of Legal Benchmarking Limited, 4 Bouverie Street, London, EC4Y 8AX

Copyright © Legal Benchmarking Limited and its affiliated companies 2025

Accessibility | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Modern Slavery Statement

Stats reveal Vodafone was destined to win

vodafone-sim-only.jpg

Strong legal arguments were not the only thing on Vodafone’s side in their triumph at the Indian Supreme Court last week, statistics show that a victory was inevitable.

Friday’s judgment from Chief Justice SH Kapadia was just the latest tax decision he has made that favoured the taxpayer.

As the table below shows, over the past four years Kapadia has found 76% of tax cases in favour of the taxpayer. This is by far and above the percentages of his collagues. 


Income tax judgments passed by Supreme Court judges*

Name of Supreme Court judge

Assessee

Revenue

Assessee in percentage

Revenue in percentage

Ratio

Justice SH Kapadia **

65

29

76

24



Justice SP Bharucha

72

101

42

58



Justice Suhas Sen

13

27

33

67



Justice Ranganathan

18

12

60

40



Justice Sabyasachi Mukherjee

22

15

59

41



Justice Jeevan Reddy

12

14

46

54



Justice YV Chandrachud

10

12

45

55



Justice K Venkataswami

4

3

57

43



Justice YK Sabharwal

1

5

17

83



Justice Arijit Pasayat

14

13

52

48



Justice GB Pattanaik

8

16

33

67



Justice RC Lahoti

15

14

52

48



Justice BN Kirpal

5

5

50

50



* In favour of

** Jan 1 2008 - Jan 24 2012

Source: Taxmann/Taxsutra


PROFILE: The Chief Justice of India COVERAGE: What industry had to say

COMMENT: Lessons to learn from Vodafone

ANALYSIS: How you can avoid becoming the next Vodafone

INSIGHT: Why the Vodafone ruling leaves China standing alone in the cold

more across site & shared bottom lb ros

More from across our site

For many taxpayers, the prospect of long-term certainty that a bilateral APA offers can override concerns about time, cost and confidentiality
Levine, who served under the Joe Biden administration, led the US’s negotiations on the OECD’s two-pillar solution
The deal to acquire ITR's parent company is expected to complete by the end of May 2025
JBS, the biggest meat company in the world, allegedly used Luxembourgian ‘mailbox companies’ to avoid taxes between 2019 and 2022
Despite the conviction of Jessa Dabalos, the Tax Practitioners’ Board’s investigative work continues with five outstanding PwC scandal probes
Heads of tax need to push their teams forward as strategic business advisers to add value across their organisations, says Sandy Markwick
Scott Bessent reportedly felt undermined by Musk naming Gary Shapley as acting IRS commissioner; in other news, Baker Tilly will combine with a top 15 US firm
The promise of nine years’ tax certainty and a ‘rational and pragmatic’ government process makes APAs a no-brainer, Indian tax advisers tell ITR
Despite garnering significant revenues from multinationals, Italy’s digital services tax presents pressing double taxation issues, say Stefano Simontacchi and Francesco Saverio Scandone of BonelliErede
ITR’s research shows that in-house tax counsel in Asia also feel underserved by their advisers’ international networks
Gift this article