Commissioner of Central Tax Vs Samiah International Builder Pvt. Ltd. (Delhi High Court)
Summary: The Delhi High Court considered the maintainability of an appeal filed under Section 35G of the Central Excise Act, 1944, as applicable to service tax matters under the Finance Act, 1994, read with Section 174 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. The appeal challenged Final Order No. ST/A/51686-51687/2023-ST{DB} dated 22.12.2023 passed by the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal, Principal Bench, New Delhi, in Service Tax Appeal No. ST/55788/2014 filed by the respondent and Service Tax Appeal No. ST/55922/2014 filed by the Revenue, arising from Order-in-Original No. 20/2016-ST dated 06.12.2016 passed by the Commissioner of Central Excise, Delhi-III, Gurgaon.
The respondent disputed the maintainability of the appeal before the High Court. It was contended that the expression “determination of any question having a relation to the rate of duty of excise” in Section 35L of the Central Excise Act, 1944 was wide enough to encompass the question of taxability of a particular service. Reliance was placed on the Delhi High Court Division Bench decision in Commissioner of Central Tax, CGST Delhi East v. JMD Limited, 2024 SCC OnLine Del 9141.
The appellant, on the other hand, submitted that the Allahabad High Court in NKG Infrastructure Ltd. v. Commissioner of Customs, Central Excise & Service Tax, 2017 (47) S.T.R. 113 (All.) had held that an appeal before the High Court was maintainable where taxability of a particular service was in dispute.
