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REPORTABLE

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

CIVIL APPEAL NO. 7215 OF 2004

M/S. COAL HANDLERS PRIVATE LIMITED .....APPELLANT(S)

VERSUS

COMMISSIONER OF CENTRAL EXCISE RANGE KOLKATA – I .....RESPONDENT(S)

W I T H

CIVIL APPEAL NO. 5159 OF 2013

A N D

CIVIL APPEAL NO. 9967 OF 2014

J U D G M E N T

A.K. SIKRI, J.

CIVIL APPEAL NO. 7215 OF 2004 CIVIL APPEAL NO. 5159 OF 2013

Appellants in both these appeals are the assessees and the

issue involved in these appeals is common.  Both the appellants

provide  certain  services  as  Agents  under  the  contracts  signed

with their respective Principals.  The issue is as to whether such

services  provided  by  them  would  label  them  as  Clearing  &

Civil Appeal No. 7215 of 2004 & Ors. Page 1 of 19

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Forwarding Agents (for short, 'C&F Agents') and, thus, make them

liable  to service tax in  accordance with the Finance Act,  1994

(hereinafter  referred to as the 'Act'),  as amended from time to

time.   Since  the  issue  to  be  decided  in  both  the  appeals  is

identical and also arises almost in the same factual background, it

would  serve  our  purpose  if  we  reproduce  the  facts  from Civil

Appeal No. 7215 of 2004.

2) The appellant in this case is providing certain services as Agent.

Such  services  are  provided  to  M/s.  Gujarat  Ambuja  Cements

Limited and M/s.  Ambuja Cements Eastern Limited (hereinafter

collectively referred to as 'Ambuja companies').  At the material

time,  these  were  public  sector  undertakings  under  the

Government  of  Gujarat.   These industries need coal  as a  raw

material  for  production  of  cement,  which  is  the  main

manufacturing  activity  undertaken  by  the  said  companies.

Industries that need coal as a raw material generally approach the

Ministry  of  Industries,  Government  of  India  with  their

requirements.   The  Ministry  of  Industries,  after  enquiry,

recommends to the Ministry of Coal the quantity that is required to

be supplied to such industries.  Thereafter, the Ministry of Coal,

as per the norms prescribed, allots the coal to these industries

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through the  Long Term Linkage  Committee  indicating  the  coal

companies  and  the  location  from  which  coal  can  be  made

available to them.  While fixing the locations from where the coal

is to be supplied to such companies, the Committee takes into

account the Railways commitment for movement of the coal.  The

Railways is responsible for placing of rail rakes according to the

programme.  To maintain constant liaison with the Railways for

the  actual  placing  of  coal  rakes,  such  companies  generally

appoint  its  Agents.   The aforesaid  Ambuja  companies,  for  this

purpose,  had  appointed  the  appellant  for  this  purpose  and  a

contract was entered into between the said Ambuja companies

and the appellant.  Under this Agency agreement, the appellant

was required to undertake the following activities on behalf of the

Ambuja companies:

(i) following up the allotment of coal rakes by the Railways;

(ii) expediting and supervising the loading and labeling of rail wagons;

(iii) drawing the samples of coal loaded on the wagons;

(iv) complying with the formalities relating to payments for freight to the Railways; and

(v) dispatching of rail receipts to Ambuja companies.

3) The  issue  that  arose  for  consideration  was  as  to  whether

aforesaid services were liable to service tax under the provisions

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of  the  Act.   By  the  said  Act,  sub-section  (25)  was  inserted  in

Section 65, which defines C&F Agent as under:

“(25)  “clearing  and forwarding  agent”  means any person who is  engaged in providing any service, either  directly  or  indirectly,  connected  with  the clearing and forwarding operations in any manner to any other person and includes a consignment agent;”

We may also note that the taxable service as provided in

Section 65(48)(j)  of the Act in relation to service of C&F Agent

means  'any  service  provided  to  a  client,  by  a  clearing  and

forwarding agent in relation to clearing and forwarding operations

in any manner'.

4) It  so  happened  that  the  appellant  had  filed  an  application  for

registration in Form ST-I under Section 69 of Chapter V of the Act

on November 17, 1999 for the service of  'handling agents'  (C&F

Agent).  Certification of Registration was granted on November

18, 1999.  Thereafter, on May 30, 2000, the appellant surrendered

the  said  Registration  Certificate  on  the  ground  that  services

rendered by them were not covered by Section 65(25) of the Act.

The  application  for  surrender  was,  however,  rejected  by  the

Superintendent  of  Central  Excise  (SCE),  Service  Tax  Cell,

Kolkata-I, Commissionerate on February 08, 2001 by passing the

Order-in-Original. The SCE, in that order, took the view that the

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services rendered by the appellant under the aforesaid contract

with Ambuja companies would be covered by Section 65(25) of

the Act and, therefore, exigible to service tax.  Aggrieved by the

said  order,  the  appellant  preferred  an  appeal  before  the

Commissioner of  Central  Excise (Appeals),  Kolkata,  which was

also  dismissed  by  the  Commissioner  on  November  05,  2002.

This order was challenged by the appellant before the Customs,

Excise & Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (for short, 'CESTAT').

5) The CESTAT has also dismissed the appeal  by  the impugned

order dated May 24, 2004 by observing that the matter is covered

by its own judgment in the case of M/s. Prabhat Zarda Factory

(India) Ltd.  v.  Commissioner of Central Excise, Patna1.  The

Tribunal has noted in this behalf that in the said case the Bench of

the Tribunal had considered the definition of C&F Agent and has

held that such definition was very wide and includes any service,

even provided indirectly.  It was also noted that the said judgment

was delivered on February 09, 2002 and thereafter Finance Act of

2003 was introduced and the new service, viz. 'Business Auxiliary

Service'  appearing in Section 65(19) was introduced.  The said

service is in relation to promotion or marketing of service provided

by the client; any customer care service provided on behalf of the 1 2002 (145) ELT 222

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client  and  any  incidental  or  auxiliary  support  service  such  as

billing,  collection  or  recovery  of  cheques,  accounts  and

remittance, evaluation of prospective customer and public relation

services,  and  includes  services  as  a  commission  agent.   The

CESTAT,  however,  held  that  the  activities  undertaken  by  the

appellant were not covered by the expression 'Business Auxiliary

Service', which include Commission Agents, and stand exempted

from service tax with effect from July 01, 2003 vide Notification

No. 13/2003 dated June 20, 2003.  Therefore, no such exemption

was  available.   The  relevant  paras  of  the  impugned  order

containing the aforesaid discussion are as under:

“5)   The  appellants  have  agreed  that  the  issue involved  stands  decided  in  the  case  of  Prabhat Zarda Factory  (India)  Ltd.  (Supra).   The Tribunal under the said judgment has observed that as per definition of clearing and forwarding agent, he is a person who is engaged for providing any service, either directly or indirectly connected with clearing and forwarding  operations  in  any  manner  to  any other  person  and  includes  a  commission  agent. The use of the expression “any” and “indirectly” in the said definition of clearing and forwarding agent, is  indicative  of  the  fact  that  the  scope  of  the services to be provided by clearing and forwarding agent is quite wide.  He is not only the person who is actually dealing with the goods, which has to be termed as clearing and forwarding agent, but even if  the  services  are  indirect  and  if  the  same  are connected  with  the  clearing  and  forwarding operations in any manner of the other persons, he would  be  covered  within  the  scope  of  the  said definition.   The  appellants  in  the  instant  case render their services in all the sections of pre load of the coal rakes i.e. obtaining consent on behalf of

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their  customers,  sanctions  from  the  office  of Executive  Director-Rail  Movement,  supervising loading  of  the  wagons,  sending  samples  and assuring  the  proper  quality  and  quantities, complying with the formalities relating to payments for  freight.   As  such,  it  is  quite  clear  that  the appellant  is  covered by  the  definition  of  clearing and  forwarding  agent,  as  interpreted  by  the Tribunal  in  the  above  referred  case  of  Prabhat Zarda.

6)  The appellants have alternative contention that they are covered by the new i.e. Business Auxiliary Service  introduced  vide  Finance  Act  of  2003. However, we find that the said services are in the nature  of  promotional  or  marketing  of  the customers goods or in the nature of doing the other routine  type  of  jobs  like  billing  or  collection  of cheques, maintenance of accounts and evaluation of  prospective  customers  and  public  relation services.   The  services  being  provided  by  the appellant  cannot  be equated to  the above.   It  is also seen that the expression 'commission agent' has been explained by the Notification dated 20th June,  2003  reported  in  155  ELT  N-171,  vide paragraph  2.1.3  it  has  been  clarified  that  C&F agents work on commission basis do not fall under the definition of 'Business Auxiliary Service', in as much as they are substantially covered within the definition  C  &  F  service.   It  has,  further,  been clarified  that  under  Section  65A of  Finance  Act, 1994,  it  has  also  been  provided  that  in  case  of overlap,  a  service  would  be  classified  under  the head, (a) which provides most specific description, (b)  in  case  of  a  composite  service  having combination  of  different  taxable  services,  the service which give them their  essential  character and (c)  in  case the test  of  (a)  and (b)  does  not resolve,  the  service  which  comes  earlier  in  the clauses  of  Section  65,  i.e.  the  service  that  was subjected to service tax earlier.  Since Insurance services  and  C  &  F  Services  are  more  specific description and were also subjected to service tax prior  to  imposition  of  tax  on  business  auxiliary service,  the  insurance  agents,  C  &  F  agents working  on  commission  basis  would  fall  under those respective categories.  From this, it  follows

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that  a particular service can be taxed only under one head of service.”

6) As is clear from the reading of the aforesaid extracted portion of

the order, the Tribunal has rested its impugned decision on its

earlier judgment in the case of  Prabhat Zarda  (supra) and the

reasons contained in the said judgment are restated in support of

the view taken by the Tribunal in the impugned judgment.

7) It so happened that the ratio of the decision in  Prabhat Zarda

(supra) was doubted by another Bench of the Tribunal and the

said Bench referred the matter to the larger Bench.  On reference

being made, the Full Bench of the Tribunal decided the issue and

on the aforesaid aspect decision in  Prabhat Zarda  (supra) has

been overruled by it.  The judgment of the Full Bench is known as

Larsen  &  Toubro  Ltd.  v.  Commissioner  of  Central  Excise,

Chennai2.  It gets revealed from the decision of the larger Bench

that after taking note of the definition of  'clearing and forwarding

agent' (which  has  already  been  extracted  above),  the  larger

Bench  observed  that  the  service  should  be  connected  with

clearing and forwarding operations.  The 'clearing and forwarding'

operations  would  be  various  activities  having  bearing  on

clearance of goods, which would involve documentary processes

2 2006 (3) STR 321 (Tri.-LB) :: 2006 (110) ECC 634 :: 2006 ECR 634 Tri Delhi

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and arrangements for transfer of goods to their destination, which

process may also involve clearance at subsequent stages during

forwarding operations.   In  the opinion of  the larger  Bench, the

procurer of orders on commission basis renders services which

are not connected with such clearing and forwarding operations,

which have bearing on the movement of goods.  It also mentioned

that normally a C&F Agent undertakes the following activities:

(i) receiving the goods from the factories or premises of the principal or his agents;

(ii) warehousing these goods;

(iii) receiving despatch orders from the principal;

(iv) arranging despatch of goods as per the directions of the principal by engaging transport on his own or through the authorized transporters of the principal;

(v) maintaining records of the receipt and despatch of goods and the stock available at the warehouse; and

(vi) preparing invoices on behalf of the principal.

8) Since the appellant in that case was engaged only for procuring

purchase orders for  vendor  on commission basis and was not

engaged  in  any  of  the  above  activities,  the  larger  Bench

concluded that the services provided by the said appellant would

not fall within the definition of  'clearing and forwarding agent' as

contained in the Act.  The detailed discussion on this aspect runs

as follows:

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“9.3   An  agent  engaged  only  for  procuring purchase  orders  for  the  vendor  on  commission basis  does  not  engage  in  any  of  the  above activities,  directly  or  indirectly. Commission agent engaged to procure orders and not entrusted with the work of  clearing and forwarding of the goods would be a person who, in the ordinary course of business, makes contracts for sale or purchase of goods  for  others.  The  definition  of  "commission agent" in Section 2(aaa) of the Central Excise Act, 1944,  would apply in  relation to service tax as it applies  in  relation  to  duty  of  excise  by  virtue  of Sub-section  (121)  or  Section  65  of  the  Act. Services of commission agent are included in the definition  of  "business  auxiliary  service"  under Sub-section  (19)  of  Section  65  w.e.f.  1-7-2003, which includes service of a commission agent. As defined in  Explanation  (a)  to  Sub-section (19)  of Section 65 commission agent is a person who acts on behalf  of  another  person and causes  sale  or purchase  of  goods,  or  provision  or  receipt  of services,  for  consideration,  and  includes  any person  who,  while  acting  on  behalf  of  another person: deals with goods or services or documents of  title  to  such  goods  or  services;  or  collects payment of sale price of such goods or services; or guarantees  for  collection  or  payment  for  such goods  or  services;  or  undertakes  any  activities relating to such sale or purchase of such goods or services.  This  clearly  shows  that  the  activity  of mere  procurement  of  purchase  orders  for  the principal  on  commission  basis  of  a  commission agent is treated separately by the Parliament from the activities  of  a  clearing  and forwarding agent. Activity of procuring orders is thus independent of clearing  and  forwarding  operations.  The  agents doing these activities  can be different.  Moreover, clearing  and  forwarding  operations  do  not  flow directly  or  indirectly  from  mere  procurement  of orders.  There  is  no  obligation  on  the  person procuring  orders  as  a  commission  agent  for  the principal, only by virtue of that agency, to carry out clearing and forwarding operations in respect of the goods  which  are  to  be  supplied  pursuant  to  the orders so procured.

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10. It appears to us that the expressions "directly or indirectly"  and  "in  any  manner"  occurring  in  the definition of "clearing and forwarding agent" cannot be  isolated  from  the  activity  of  clearing  and forwarding operations. A person may undertake to provide service of procurement of orders as agent of the principal without agreeing to provide services of clearing and forwarding of the goods.  Clearing and forwarding has a very specific connotation in the context of movement of goods from the supplier to their destination and agents undertaking clearing and forwarding operations may never  have been concerned  with  procurement  of  orders  for  the goods which are cleared and forwarded. A person entrusted  with  the work  of  commission agent  for procuring orders for the principal cannot insist on also providing services as clearing and forwarding agent  in  respect  of  those goods and it  would be open for the principal to engage some other person for the purpose of forwarding such goods. In cases where  the  buyer  is  under  an  obligation  to  take delivery of the goods from the vendor's premises, there would not be even any need on the part of the  vendor  to  engage any  forwarding  agent,  nor can a person engaged for the purpose of clearing and  forwarding  operations,  insist  on  procuring orders  for  the  principal  in  the  absence  of  any stipulation to that effect.

11.  We,  therefore,  hold  that  mere  procuring  or booking  orders  for  the  principal  by  an  agent  on payment of commission basis would not amount to providing  services  as  "clearing  and  forwarding agent", within the meaning of the definition of that expression  under  Section  65(25)  of  the  Finance Act, 1994, as has been held in the decision of the Tribunal  in  Prabhat  Zarda  Factory  (Pvt.)  Ltd. v. CCE Patna reported in 2002 (145) ELT : 2002 (50) RLT 326 (CEGAT-KOL.).  The decision in Prabhat Zarda Factory (Pvt.)  Ltd.  stands overruled to the extent of the aforesaid ratio laid down thereunder. The reference is  answered accordingly. All  these appeals will  now be placed before the concerned Division Bench for decision on merits in the light of this judgment and in accordance with law.

(emphasis added)”

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9) Significantly, the Revenue accepted the aforesaid decision in the

case of  Larsen & Toubro  (supra)  and did not  file  any appeal

thereagainst.  Even otherwise, we find that the larger Bench of the

Tribunal in the said case has rightly interpreted the definition of

'clearing and forwarding agent' contained in Section 65(25) of the

Act.   Notwithstanding  the  aforesaid  dicta  of  the  larger  Bench,

learned senior counsel appearing for the Revenue submitted that

judgment  in  Prabhat  Zarda  (supra)  has  not  been  overruled

entirely, as is clear from the reading of para 11 of the judgment

where  the  larger  Bench  has  said  that  Prabhat  Zarda  (supra)

'stands overruled to the extent of the aforesaid ratio laid down

thereunder'.   His  endeavour  was  to  demonstrate  that  in  the

present case the Tribunal in the impugned judgment had rightly

relied  upon  Prabhat  Zarda  (supra)  and  when  the  services

rendered  by the appellant  are  looked into,  it  would  clearly  fall

within the definition of 'clearing and forwarding agent' contained in

Section 65(25) of the Act.

Let  us,  therefore,  examine  whether  services  rendered  by  the

appellant would qualify it as C&F Agent?

10) It  would  be  relevant  to  point  out  the  definition  of  'forwarding

agent', as known in legal parlance, from Black's Law Dictionary

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(Seventh Edition), which is as under:

“forwarding agent. 1. A person or company whose business is to receive and ship goods for others – Also  termed  freight-forwarder.   2.   A  freight- forwarder  who  assembles  less-than-carload shipments  'small  shipments'  into  carload shipments,  thus taking advantage of lower freight rates.”

The Penguin Business Dictionary defines this expression in

the following words:

“Forwarding  agent.   A GENERAL  AGENT  who specializes in moving goods from a factory or port of entry to their proper destination.  Such an agent normally owns the transport necessary for this work and  often  arranges  FREIGHT  and  customs formalities for his principal.”

In Fourth Edition of Halsbury's Laws of England (Volume 5),

the  characteristics  of  'forwarding  agents' are  narrated  in  the

following manner:

“442.  Characteristics of forwarding agents.  A forwarding  agent  is  one  who  carries  on  the business of arranging for the carriage of gods for other people.  It must be clearly understood that a forwarding agent  is  not,  in  general,  a  carrier:  he does not obtain possession of the goods: and he does  not  undertake  the  delivery  of  them  at  the other end.  All that he does is to act as agent for the owner of the goods to make arrangements with the people who do carry, such as shipowners, road hauliers, railway authorities and air carriers, and to make arrangements, so far as they are necessary, for the intermediate steps between the ship and the rail, the customs or anything else.

Although there is a clear distinction between a forwarding agent and a carrier, the same person may carry on both activities at once, and contract sometimes  as  one  and  sometimes  as  the  other.

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The  fact  that  a  person  describes  himself  as  a forwarding  agent  is  not  conclusive:  and  it  is  a question  of  fact  to  be  decided  according  to  the circumstances  of  each  case  whether  a  person normally  carrying  on  business  as  a  forwarding agent contracts solely as agent so as to establish a direct contractual link between his customer and a carrier  (or  possibly  with  several  carriers,  each undertaking  a  different  part  of  the  transit),  or whether  he  contracts  as  principal  to  carry  the goods,  the  customer  appreciating  that  he  will perform  the  contract  vicariously  through  the employment of sub-contractors.  The nature of the carriage,  the  language  used  by  the  parties  in describing the role of  the person concerned, and any course of dealing between the parties will be relevant factors.

Persons properly described as shipping and forwarding  agents  frequently  act  as  carriers themselves with respect to part of the carriage, for example,  by  performing  collection  and  delivery services  between  the  customers'  premises,  their own depots, and warehouses, docks and carriers' depots.  In such cases they would have the rights and duties of carriers with respect to such carriage as  they  undertake  personally,  but  the  rights  and duties  of  forwarding  agents  with  respect  to  the remainder of the transit.

443.  Rights and liabilities of forwarding agents. The rights and liabilities of a forwarding agent are governed by the general  principles  of  the law of agency:  and  so  he  is  entitled  to  be  indemnified against  all  expenses  incurred  on  behalf  of  his principal and to be paid his proper charges for his services.   He is  liable for  failure to make proper arrangements  for  the  carriage  and  for  ancillary matters which he has undertaken, such as customs clearance.   He  is  not  liable  for  the  failings  of persons with whom he makes contracts on behalf of  his  principal,  unless he know of  those failings and ought  to have taken action either  to remedy them  or  at  least  to  inform  his  principal  so  that damage might be avoided or mitigated: thus he is under  no  duty  to  supervise the actions of carriers

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whom  he  reasonably  and  properly  expects  to perform their normal obligations competently.

In ordinary transactions a forwarding agent is not liable for failing to insure the goods, in the absence of instructions from his customer to do so: but he may, in certain circumstances, be liable for not consulting his customer and advising him as to the proper transport  and insurance arrangements which should be made for valuable goods.

A  forwarding  agent  is  not  normally personally  liable  to  pay  the  charges  of  carriers whom he engages to carry the gods on behalf of his principal; but there is a custom of the London freight  market  that  forwarding  agents  incur personal liability to shipowners for the payment of freight  or  of  dead  freight  for  booked  space  left unfilled.

A forwarding agent who tenders dangerous goods  to  carriers  without  warning  them  of  their nature or of the precautions which should be taken in their carriage is personally liable to the carriers for  any  resulting  damage  through  breach  of  the implied warranty that the goods are fit for carriage.”

11) From  the  reading  of  the  definition  contained  in  the  aforesaid

provision, together with its dictionary meanings contained in Legal

and Commercial dictionaries, it becomes apparent that in order to

qualify  as  a  C&F  Agent,  such  a  person  is  to  be  found  to  be

engaged in providing any service connected with  'clearing and

forwarding operations'.  Of  course,  once it  is  found that  such a

person is  providing the services which are  connected with  the

clearing and forwarding operations, then whether such services

are provided directly or indirectly would be of no significance and

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such a person would be covered by the definition.  Therefore, we

have to see as to what would constitute clearing and forwarding

operations.  As is clear from the plain meaning of the aforesaid

expression,  it  would  cover  those  activities  which  pertain  to

clearing of the goods and thereafter forwarding those goods to a

particular destination, at the instance and on the directions of the

principal.   In  the context  of  these appeals,  it  would essentially

include  getting  the  coal  cleared  as  an  agent  on  behalf  of  the

principal  from  the  supplier  of  the  coal  (which  would  mean

collieries  in  the  present  case)  and  thereafter  dispatching/

forwarding  the  said  coal  to  different  destinations  as  per  the

instructions  of  the  principal.   In  the  process,  it  may  include

warehousing of the goods so cleared, receiving dispatch orders

from the principal,  arranging dispatch of  the goods as per  the

instructions of the principal by engaging transport on his own or

through the transporters of the principal, maintaining records of

the receipt and dispatch of the goods and the stock available on

the warehouses and preparing invoices on behalf of the principal.

The larger Bench rightly enumerated these activities which the

C&F Agent is supposed to perform.

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12) On  the  facts  of  the  present  case,  we  find  that  none  of  the

aforesaid activities are performed by the appellant.  There is no

role of the appellant in getting the coal cleared from the collieries/

supplier of the coal.  Movement of the coal is under the contract of

sale between the coal company and Ambuja companies.  Even

the coal is loaded on to the railway wagons by the coal company.

The goods are  not  under  any legal  detention from which they

need to be freed by the appellant.  Not only this, destination of the

goods is known to the coal company and the railway rakes are

placed  by  the  coal  company  for  the  said  destinations.   The

destination is the factories of the principal itself, namely, Ambuja

companies, where the coal is to be delivered by the coal company

as  per  pre-determined/agreed  covenants  between  them.

Therefore, there is no occasion for Ambuja companies to instruct

the  appellant  to  dispatch/forward  the  goods  to  a  particular

destination which is already fixed as per the contract between the

coal company and the Ambuja companies.  The appellant does

not even undertake any loading operation.  The primary job of the

appellant,  as  per  the  contract  between  the  appellant  and  the

Ambuja companies, is of supervising and liaisoning with the coal

company as well as the Railways to see that the material required

by Ambuja companies is loaded as per the schedule.  At no stage

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custody of the coal is taken by the appellant or transportation of

the coal, as forwarders, is arranged by the appellant.  We are,

thus,  of  the  clear  opinion  that  the  services  rendered  by  the

appellant would not qualify as C&F Agent within the meaning of

Section 65(25) of the Act.

13) In view of the aforesaid discussion, the appeals are allowed and

the impugned orders  passed by  the  Tribunal  are  set  aside  by

quashing the demand of service tax made from the appellants.

No costs.

CIVIL APPEAL NO. 9967 OF 2014

The Commissioner of Service Tax, Kolkata, is aggrieved by

the orders dated August 21, 2013 passed by the High Court of

Calcutta, which has dismissed the appeal of the Revenue by the

impugned judgment, refusing to entertain the said appeal which

was preferred by the Revenue against orders dated April 02, 2013

passed by CESTAT.  In the said appeal before the CESTAT, it had

taken the view, in the case of same appellant, that the appellant

was not liable to pay any service tax as it was not covered by the

definition of C&F Agent as contained in Section 65(25) of the Act.

The appeal preferred by the Revenue was dismissed by the High

Court on the ground that Civil Appeal No. 5159 of 2013 is pending

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in this Court.  Since the said appeal of the appellant is allowed by

us, as a consequence, this appeal warrants to be dismissed and it

is ordered accordingly.

No costs.

.............................................J. (A.K. SIKRI)

.............................................J. (ROHINTON FALI NARIMAN)

NEW DELHI; MAY 05, 2015.

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