Commissioner of Customs (Import) Vs M/s Dilip Kumar and Company & Ors. (Supreme Court of India)
(1) Exemption notification should be interpreted strictly; the burden of proving applicability would be on the assessee to show that his case comes within the parameters of the exemption clause or exemption notification.
(2) When there is ambiguity in exemption notification which is subject to strict interpretation, the benefit of such ambiguity cannot be claimed by the subject/assessee and it must be interpreted in favour of the revenue.
(3) The ratio in Sun Export case is not correct and all the decisions which took similar view as in Sun Export Case stands over-ruled.
FULL TEXT OF THE SUPREME COURT JUDGMENT / ORDER IS AS FOLLOWS:-
1. This Constitution Bench is setup to examine the correctness of the ratio in Sun Export Corporation, Bombay v. Collector of Customs, Bombay, (1997) 6 SCC 564 [hereinafter referred as ‘Sun Export Case’ for brevity], namely the question is What is the interpretative rule to be applied while interpreting a tax exemption Reportable provision/notification when there is an ambiguity as to its applicability with reference to the entitlement of the assessee or the rate of tax to be applied?
