Rama Kishan Bhadu vs. Union Of INDIA

Facts

The petitioner, Rama Kishan Bhadu, proprietor of Sainath Enterprises, filed a writ petition challenging show cause notices and assessment orders issued by the GST Department. These notices raised a demand for service tax on royalty paid to the Mining Department for a mining lease. The petitioner is an individual aged 75 years. The respondents include the Union of India, the State of Rajasthan through its Finance and Mining Departments, and the Superintendent of Central Goods and Services Tax, Jodhpur.

Held

The Court held that the issue raised in the present writ petition had already been decided by this Court. Specifically, the Court referred to its order dated 29.09.2022 in D.B. Civil Writ Petition No.5678/2022 (Shree Basant Bhandar Int Udyog vs. UOI & Ors.) and other connected writ petitions. This decision, in turn, relied on a judgment passed by the Court in DB Civil Writ Petition No.8109/2022 (Sudershan Lal Gupta vs. Union of India & Ors., decided on 27.09.2022). Consequently, the present writ petition was dismissed in terms of these prior judgments. The ratio decidendi is that if a legal issue has been conclusively decided by the High Court, subsequent petitions raising the same issue are liable to be dismissed in line with the precedent.

Key Issues

1. Whether royalty paid to the Mining Department for a mining lease is exigible to service tax under the Goods and Services Tax regime? Petitioner's contention: The petitioner argued that the issue involved in the present writ petition has already been decided by this Court in previous judgments. Revenue's contention: The respondents did not record any specific arguments in the judgment. However, the issuance of show cause notices and assessment orders implies their stance that royalty is taxable. The court's decision to dismiss the petition based on prior judgments suggests the revenue's position was that royalty is taxable.