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TMI Blog2024 (11) TMI 1224X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Shri Bikramjit Singh, Company Commander, Patiala Shri Rajinder Krishan, Company Commander, Firozepur Shri Dilbag Singh, Company Commander, Kapurthala Shri Manpreet Singh, Company Commander, Amritsar Shri Rawel Singh, Company Commander, Hoshiarpur Shri Hari Singh, Company Commander, Bathinda Shri Maninder Singh Hira, Company Commander, HoshiarpurShri Jagseer Singh, Company Commander for the Appellants-Assessee Shri Aneesh Dewan with Shri Raman Mittal and Shri Ravinder Jangu, Authorized Representatives for the Respondent-Revenue ORDER P. ANJANI KUMAR This set of appeals is filed by District Commandant of various districts, Punjab Home Guard. The appellants are engaged in providing security to various government organizations like Food Corporation of India etc. It appeared to the department that the appellants are engaged in providing taxable services under the category Security Agency Services; have not registered themselves and have not discharged the applicable service tax; show cause notices were issued and were confirmed by the original authorities as well as the appellate authority. In respect of ST/56006/2014 and ST/50520/2014, Revenue is in appeal against the orders passe ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... mount collected as per the provisions of the relevant statute for performing such functions is in the nature of compulsory levy and are deposited in the Govt. Account. However, if a sovereign or public authority provides a service, which is not in the nature of statutory activity and the same is undertaken for consideration (not a statutory fee), then in such cases service tax would be leviable as long as the activity undertaken falls within the scope of a taxable service as defined." 10. The appellants have argued that the term "person" appearing in the definition must be construed to be a natural person as well as a juristic person and by no stretch of imagination, the same will include the State or its officers or the posts created under a statute. They cited the judgment of the Constitution Bench of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of West Bengal v. Union of India [AIR 1963 SC 124] in which the Apex Court has held as under:- "The definition is an enlargement of the natural meaning of the expression "person", even the extended meaning does not include the State." Their submission is that Superintendent of Police is an authority of the State Govt. to carry out stat ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... events has been done only for maintenance of law and in the absence thereof there could arise major security issues in relation to person or property. In the light of the submissions made, we are of the view that the activities undertaken by the police, for which charges have been recovered, cannot be held to be in the nature of business activity. 12. Now, we turn to the C.B.E. & C. Circular No. 89/7/2006-S.T., dated 18-12-2006. The circular has indicated under what conditions an activity performed by a sovereign/public authority should be categorized as one which is liable to payment of service tax. The circular clarifies that charges recovered by any sovereign/public authority for carrying out any statutory function will not be liable for levy of service tax if all the following conditions are satisfied :- (a) Sovereign/public authorities perform duties which are in the nature of statutory and mandatory obligation to be fulfilled in accordance with the law. (b) The fee collected should be levied as per the provision of relevant law. (c) The amount collected is to be deposited into Government treasury. The satisfaction of each of the above three conditions is analysed be ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ment, the Government dues are to be collected and paid into the Government treasury. The appellant, therefore, is required to collect the usage charges and credit the same in the Rajasthan State Government treasury. The submission made by the police department in this regard is that the fees recovered by them is for provision of additional police force. They have referred to Section 46 of the Rajasthan Police Act, 2007 and submitted that the additional police officers are deployed at the request of any person only for the purpose of public security or for the maintenance of public peace or order. The fees levied and collected for this purpose is strictly as per the notification issued by the State Govt. under the above Section of the Act. The amounts so collected are mandatorily deposited into the Govt. treasury. Accordingly, they have submitted that all the conditions stipulated by the C.B.E. & C. circular are satisfied and consequently the activities are to be considered as statutory function and no service tax can be levied on such fees collected for discharging the sovereign function. The lower authorities have, however, taken the view that the activity undertaken is not in ..... 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