Hindustan Equipment Craft Vs Assistant Commissioner of State Tax (Bombay High Court)
The writ petition challenged an order dated 30 December 2025 issued by the Assistant Commissioner of State Tax pursuant to a show cause notice dated 22 September 2025. The notice had been issued under Section 75 of the Maharashtra Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, seeking to demand GST from the petitioner under Section 73(5) on the ground that the petitioner had allegedly concealed a transaction involving the assignment of leasehold rights in a plot belonging to the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC).
According to the authorities, the petitioner had assigned its leasehold rights in the MIDC plot to another party for a consideration of ₹1,15,00,000. The assignment had been carried out with the consent of MIDC, and the petitioner had paid an additional premium of ₹2,33,500. The respondents treated the assignment as a supply of services under Section 7(1) of the Act read with Clause 2(b) of Schedule II, which treats leasing or letting out of buildings for business or commerce as a supply of services. Based on this interpretation, the department classified the transaction as a taxable service under “other miscellaneous services” and sought to levy GST at the rate of 18% under Notification No. 11/2017 (Central Tax Rate) dated 28 June 2017.
