Jurisprudentiol – Tuesday's cases

By Vijay Kumar

Legal Corner Icon — the image was hosted by the publisher and was not captured.Central Excise

Alternative remedy is to be availed even where issue raised by petitioner in Writ Petition is a reasonable one as well as a debatable one: HC

HIGH Court held that the petitioner has got an alternative of effective appeal remedy under Section 35B of the Central Excise Act, 1944, though the High Court for a moment accepts the issue raised in the Writ Petition as a reasonable one, but in view of the existence of efficient alternate remedy provided under Section 35 B of the Act, directed the petitioner to approach the Tribunal within a period of two weeks.

Income Tax

Income tax - Whether in absence of demand notice u/s 156, assessee cannot be treated as assessee-in-default u/s 201(1) for non-deposit of TDS deducted - NO, it can be: ITAT

WHETHER penalty u/s 221(1) can be imposed only after the completion of appellate proceedings, if any – Whether the amount of tax deducted at source can be treated to have become payable in consequence of any order passed under the Act for which notice u/s 156 of the Act was required to be issued – Whether in the absence of demand notice u/s 156, the assessee cannot be treated as assessee in default. And the final verdict goes against the assessee.

Service Tax

Commission received for disbursement of salary of Government employees is in relation to statutory function of the govt. – following the principle of ejusdem generis same cannot be considered as consideration for activities covered under definition of ‘commission agent' - Prima facie case in favour - Pre-deposit waived: CESTAT

THE applicant filed this application for waiver of pre-deposit of Service Tax of Rs. 87,686/- along with interest and penalty imposed under various provisions of Finance Act, 1994. The contention of the applicant is that what they receive from the Government is managerial charges for maintenance of salary account book keeping of the Govt. employees. The charges received by them cannot be treated as commission as envisaged in the definition of commission agent.

See our columns Tomorrow for the judgements