Commissioner Of Service Tax, Ahmedabad vs M/S. Quintiles Technologies India Pvt. ...

(Arising out of OIA-AHM-SVTAX-000-APP-093-14-15 dated 15.07.2014, Passed by Commissioner (Appeals) Central Excise, & S.T., Ahmedabad)

Commissioner of Service Tax, Ahmedabad : Appellant (s)

VERSUS

M/s. Quintiles Technologies India Pvt. Limited : Respondent (s)

Represented by :

For Appellant (s) : Shri J. Nagori, Authorised Representative For Respondent (s) : Shri Rahul Gajera, Advocate

For approval and signature :

Mr. H.K. Thakur, Honble Member (Technical)

1 Whether Press Reporter may be allowed to see the Order for publication as per Rule 27 of the CESTAT (Procedure) Rules, 1982?

No 2 Whether it should be released under Rule 27 of CESTAT (Procedure) Rules, 1982 for publication in any authoritative report or not?

No 3 Whether their Lordships wish to see the fair copy of the Order?

Seen 4 Whether Order is to be circulated to the Departmental authorities?

Yes

CORAM :

Mr. H.K. Thakur, Honble Member (Technical)

Date of Hearing / Decision : 20.07.2015

ORDER No. A/11041-11043/2015 Dated 20.07.2015

Per : Mr. H.K. Thakur;

These appeals have been filed by the Revenue against OIA No. AHM-SVTAX-000-APP-093-14-15 dated 15.07.2014 under which the first appellate authority has remanded the appeals for re-quantification of refund claims filed by the appellants, after deciding the issue on merits as per order No. A/10218-10223/2014 dated 04.02.2014, decided by this Bench in the appellants own case.

2. Shri J. Nagori (AR) appearing on behalf of the Revenue argued that on merits the order dated 04.02.2014 passed by this Bench has not been accepted by the department and appeal against the same has been preferred before the Gujarat High Court. It was also his case that Commissioner (Appeals) does not have remand powers and accordingly the order passed by Commissioner (Appeals) should be set-aside.

3. Shri Rahul Gajera (Advocate) appearing on behalf of the Respondent argued that order No. A/10218-10223/2014 has been upheld by the Hon'ble Gujarat High Court in Tax Appeal Nos. 1239 to 1244 of 2014 under order dated 13.01.2015 and appeals filed by the Revenue have been dismissed as merit less.

4. Heard both sides and perused the case records. The issue involved in the present appeals is regarding admissibility of refund claim for unutilised credit in terms of Rule 5 of Cenvat Credit Rules, 2004 read with Notification No. 5/2006-CE (NT) dated 14.03.2006. The issue involved has been decided in favour of the appellants in earlier appeals under order No. A/10218-10223/2014 dated 04.02.2014. The same was upheld by the Hon'ble Gujarat High Court under order dated 13.01.2015 which is after the date of filing of appeals by the Revenue. Once the issue has been settled by the jurisdictional High Court, the appeals filed by the Revenue do not survive. Accordingly, the appeals filed by the Revenue are rejected with direction that adjudicating authority should quantify refund amount in remand proceedings directed by the first appellate authority.

(Order dictated and pronounced in the Court)

(H.K. Thakur) Member (Technical) .KL

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