2018 (6) TMI 1214 - HC - Central Excise

Maintainability of appeal - appellant-Revenue submits that the present appeal may be dismissed as this case is covered by the decision of this Court in COMMISSIONER OF SERVICE TAX & ANOTHER VS- MISYS SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS (INDIA) PVT. LTD. & OTHERS 2018 (6) TMI 1202 - KARNATAKA HIGH COURT where Division Bench of this Court in the case of Principal Commissioner of S.T. Bangalore V/s. Broadcom India Research Pvt. Ltd. 2016 (6) TMI 877 - KARNATAKA HIGH COURT has held that in these circumstances no substantial question of law arises for consideration by this Court and therefore the appeal filed by the Revenue was dismissed - Held that - The present appeal of the appellant-Revenue is dismissed in the same terms.

Summary

Issues:
1. Dismissal of appeal based on a previous court decision regarding refund of unutilized CENVAT Credit.
2. Interpretation of remand order by Customs, Excise & Service Tax Appellate Tribunal.
3. Consideration of substantial questions of law in relation to nexus between input and output services.

Issue 1 - Dismissal of appeal based on previous court decision:
The appellant-Revenue's counsel argued for the dismissal of the present appeal, citing a previous decision of the court in C.E.A.Nos.43/2015 & 35-36/2016 & Connected matters. In that case, the court had dismissed similar appeals against the order passed by the Customs, Excise & Service Tax Appellate Tribunal, which remanded the case back to the Adjudicating Authority to investigate the claim of refund of unutilized CENVAT Credit. The court found no substantial question of law in the remand order and accordingly dismissed the appeals.

Issue 2 - Interpretation of remand order by Customs, Excise & Service Tax Appellate Tribunal:
The Tribunal had remanded the case back to the Adjudicating Authority to consider the nexus between the output service and input service provided by the appellant-Assessee, a software solutions business. The court, in the previous case, had held that the Tribunal's exercise of discretion for remand was not perverse, as it was necessary to ascertain the nexus between input and output services. The court found no substantial questions of law in such remand orders and dismissed the appeals.

Issue 3 - Consideration of substantial questions of law:
The court considered whether there were substantial questions of law to be examined in the context of the nexus between input and output services. In the case of Principal Commissioner of S.T., Bangalore V/s. Broadcom India Research Pvt. Ltd., the court had held that no substantial question of law arose for consideration in similar circumstances. Therefore, the court dismissed the appeal, stating that no case was made out for interference. The present appeals were also dismissed based on the lack of substantial questions of law.

In conclusion, the court dismissed the present appeal of the appellant-Revenue based on the previous court decision and the interpretation of the remand order by the Customs, Excise & Service Tax Appellate Tribunal. The court found no substantial questions of law in the remand order and upheld the dismissal of the appeals.