Jurisprudentiol – Tuesday's cases

By Vijay Kumar

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

Section 110A does not absolve or override provisions of Section 110(2) - Though seized goods are released provisionally under Section 110A, if no Show Cause Notice is issued within stipulated time under Section 110(2), goods shall be returned: HC

THE Petitioner is a Director of a private limited company, which is engaged in trading of imported and domestic cars. The petitioner imported a brand new Maserati car on 07-12-2010. The fifth Respondent (DRI) detained the Maserati car in terms of Section 110 of the Customs Act, 1962 under Panchanama dated 26.4.2011 and on the same day, handed it over to petitioner vide supurdarinama. The Commissioner of Customs extended the period for issuance of SCN for a further period of 6 months w.e.f 25.10.2011 under Section 110(2) ibid. On 09.05.2012, DRI, by Panchanama cancelled the supurdarinama and took possession of the Maserati car.

Income Tax

Whether when deduction claimed u/s 80IA was subjected to appellate proceedings and finally settled in favour of assessee, reassessment can still be initiated beyond four years - NO: HC

ASSESSEE is engaged in the business of generation and distribution of electricity. Originally the assessee was engaged only in the distribution of electricity in Mumbai. However, with effect from assessment year 1996-97 it commenced generation of electricity from its plant at Dahanu. As a consequence of establishing of plant for generation of electricity the respondent became entitled to deduction under Section 80IA of the Act. The issues before the Bench are - Whether when the deduction claimed u/s 80IA was subjected to appellate proceedings and finally settled in favour of the assessee, reassessment can still be initiated beyond four years and Whether in such a case the AO's order gets merged with the Tribunal's order and any proceedings u/s 147 are barred. And the verdict goes in favour of the assessee.

Service Tax

Ship brokers are not Commission Agents: CESTAT

A 'commission agent' acts on behalf of a principal and sells or buys the goods or provides or receives the services on behalf of his principal for some commission, The commission agent as agent of the principal can also deal with the goods or services, collect payment for sale price of goods or services sold or provide guarantee for the payment or undertake any activity relating to such sale or purchase of such goods or service. But all this activity must be as an agent acting on behalf of principal. From the nature of their activity, it is clear that brokers are purely intermediaries who do not act on behalf of either ship owner or the charterer and, therefore, they cannot be said to be commission agents. A ship broker, as the name itself suggests, is essentially a broker. Ship brokers are specialist intermediaries for negotiations between ship owner and charterers who use the ship to transport some cargo or between the buyers and sellers of the ship.

See our columns Tomorrow for the judgements