The Chhattisgarh High Court has quashed the service tax demand on mandap keeper as the key documents were not relied upon and required fresh adjudication.
The bench of Justice Sanjay K. Agrawal and Justice Sanjay Kumar Jaiswal has observed that the documents relied upon in the order in original had already been returned to the appellant/assessee by the Revenue and same have been held by the adjudicating authority to be the non-relied documents, yet they have been considered and on the basis of the same, it has been held by the adjudicating authority that the appellant/assessee has been engaged in rendering services under the category of Mandap Keeper, as non-relied upon documents, which have been returned, ought not to have been considered by the adjudicating authority.
The appellant/assessee submitted that he had not provided Mandap Keeper Service and without evidence of providing service, tax has been imposed on him on total receipts. The statement of Satish Kumar Pachouri is inadmissible in evidence in light of Section 9D of the Central Excise Act, 1944 and furthermore, the documents relied upon in paragraph 40(c) of the order in original indicating that the Noticee had been engaged in rendering service under the category of Mandap Keeper, have been returned to the assessee being non-relied upon documents. The documents were seized.
The appellant’s representative requested the Commissioner, Central Excise & Customs, Raipur to return the documents not relied upon and accordingly, the documents were returned to the assessee.
The court quashed the order passed by the adjudicating authority and the order impugned dated 26-4- 2023 passed by the CESTAT are liable to be set aside and are hereby set aside. The matter is remitted to the adjudicating authority for providing opportunity to cross-examine the witness(es) relied upon by the Revenue to the appellant and to pass order afresh after hearing the parties, in accordance with law within three months from the date of receipt of a copy of this order, after considering the material available on record.
Case Details
Case Title: M/s Saubhagya Tilak Hotels Pvt. Ltd. Versus Principal Commissioner of Central Excise
Case No.: TAXC No. 93 of 2024
Date: 12-6- 2025
Counsel For Petitioner: Rahul Tamaskar
Counsel For Respondent: Ashutosh Singh Kachhawaha
