Jurisprudentiol- Tomorrow's cases

By Vijay Kumar

Legal Corner Icon — the image was hosted by the publisher and was not captured.Service Tax

Service Tax - Institutions imparting higher education and conferring degrees recognized by law cannot be equated to 'commercial' training centres engaged in coaching - Service tax demands amounting to Rs. 57 crores set aside: CESTAT

WORD 'commercial' qualifies 'coaching or training centre' and not 'coaching or training' in the statutory definition - Registered society without any profit motive and exempt from IT outside the purview of 'commercial coaching or training service' - When activities of institution are widely known in public domain including department allegation of suppression with intention to evade tax not sustainable.

Income Tax

Income Tax - when there is a bonafide surrender and undisclosed income is computed merely on basis of such surrender, no penalty would be imposable under Section 158 BFA (2) of Act: Delhi High Court

IT is apparent that the undisclosed income has been computed merely on the basis of the surrender made by the assessee in the course of the block assessment proceedings - had there been no surrender, the Assessing Officer could not have determined the undisclosed income inasmuch as the Tribunal has returned a finding of fact that there is no evidence relatable to the search on the basis of which such undisclosed income could have been determined.

Customs

SILs submitted by original licence holders for cancellation to DGFT find their way into open market although allegedly cancelled by DGFT - appellant purchases these from brokers and imports consignments on their strength - Appellant a victim of circumstances - No case for demand of customs duty: Tribunal by majority

INSOFAR as the customs authorities are concerned, a licence which is not forged, produced for clearance of goods, is otherwise valid to cover the goods in terms of description, quantity, value and all other material particulars. In other words, the Customs authorities have no jurisdiction to sit over a dispute to title to the licences as between two individuals.

See our columns tomorrow for the judgements