Do you know what happened to the Hero Honda case
? Another interesting episode in the maze of Indian taxation!
Against the order of the CESTAT, the Government went in appeal to the High Court. The High Court held that it was a question of taxability and the appeal did not lie to the High Court and so dismissed it.
Against the High Court order, the Government went in SLP to the Supreme Court. The case came up for hearing in the Supreme Court recently and then the Government realised its folly. Instead of appealing against the CESTAT order, the Government had filed an SLP against the High Court order. During the hearing, the Attorney General sought the permission of the Court to withdraw the Special Leave Petition with liberty to file appropriate appeal. The Supreme Court granted liberty to file appropriate appeal, within 45 days' time from 27/01/2015. Perhaps the Government has filed this appeal by now.
Isn't this whole exercise a misuse of the judicial system by the very Government which is supposed to be a model litigant?
First they did not know where to file the appeal. After losing the appeal in the High Court, instead of filing an appeal in the Supreme Court, they filed an SLP. They knew that the time to appeal to Supreme Court was long over. They subverted this lapse by filing an SLP and gaining a fresh time to file the appeal. Brilliant babus at work to defeat the system by all means!
In any case, now that the Supreme Court has dismissed the Revenue appeal in Kingfisher , which was entirely based on Hero Honda, Revenue should fairly submit to the Supreme Court that it has no case.