Tagged “service-tax”

5 articles on service-tax.

BSNL v. Union of India: aspect doctrine and the composite-transaction problem

On 2 March 2006, a three-judge bench disciplined the aspect doctrine, restated the dominant nature test for composite transactions, and set the stage for the GST architecture of composite supply.

Valkya Editorial·1 Jun 2026·11 min

Landmark JudgmentSupreme Court of India

Calcutta Club v. State of West Bengal: mutuality survives the 46th Amendment

A 3-judge bench held in October 2019 that the doctrine of mutuality survives Article 366(29A) for incorporated members' clubs — sales tax and service tax both fail, GST left open.

Valkya Editorial·1 Jun 2026·9 min

Landmark JudgmentSupreme Court of India

CCE Kerala v. Larsen & Toubro: no service tax on works contracts before 1 June 2007

On 20 August 2015, a two-judge bench held that composite works contracts could not be taxed as services before 1 June 2007 for want of a charging section and a machinery provision.

Valkya Editorial·1 Jun 2026·9 min

Landmark JudgmentDelhi High Court

Suresh Kumar Bansal: service tax on under-construction flats without a valuation rule

Delhi HC in June 2016 held service tax on under-construction flats invalid in absence of statutory machinery to separate the service component from land and goods value.

Valkya Editorial·1 Jun 2026·10 min

Landmark JudgmentSupreme Court of India

Northern Operating Systems: how the Supreme Court read substance over form into cross-border secondment and pulled overseas group transfers into service-tax (and GST) net

On 19 May 2022, a three-judge bench presided by Justice Uday Umesh Lalit — through a judgment authored by Justice S. Ravindra Bhat — held that the secondment of expatriate employees by overseas group entities of *Northern Operating Systems Pvt. Ltd.* constituted a taxable supply of manpower under the Finance Act 1994, attracting reverse-charge service tax. Substance, not the form of the secondment contract, was held to govern; the employment matrix — payroll, social security, the right of repatriation — remaining with the overseas entity was decisive. The Court denied the Revenue the extended period of limitation under *Section 73*. The judgment has since travelled into the GST era through a wave of *Section 74* notices and a moderating CBIC instruction.

Valkya Editorial·31 May 2026·13 min