- (1.) IN this writ petition, the petitioner has questioned the Order No.03 (RDN) CE/ST/2013 dated 21.02.2013 (Annex. 7), as passed by the Commissioner (Appeals), Central Excise, Jaipur -I ('the Appellate Authority') on its prayer for stay over recovery proceedings during pendency of an appeal against the Order -in -Original No. 01/2012 -ST -Addl. Commr. dated 03.01.2012 passed by the Additional Commissioner, Central Excise, Jaipur -I ('the Adjudicating Authority'). By the impugned order dated 21.02.2013, the learned Appellate Authority has directed the petitioner to deposit an amount of Rs. 35,00,000/ - towards the demand in question.
(2.) THE subject -matter of this writ petition being confined to the prayer for interim relief until final disposal of the appeal before the said Appellate Authority, suffice would be to notice, in brief, the relevant background aspects of the matter as follows: The dispute relates to the question of applicability of service tax with respect to road construction work, said to have been executed by the petitioner for M/s Neyveli Lignite Corporation ('M/s NLC'), said to be a company engaged in generation of power. The case of revenue had been that the petitioner was engaged in providing taxable services falling under the category "Commercial or Industrial Construction Services"; and had evaded payment of service tax amounting to Rs. 34,56,687/ - on an amount of Rs. 3,02,36,757/ - received from the said M/s NLC during the period from 20.05.2005 to 27.04.2007 and also failed to obtain service tax registration. Per contra, the case of the petitioner had been that its services were covered under the exception carved out in Section 65(25b) of the Finance Act, 1994 ('the Act of 1994').
(3.) IN its order dated 03.01.2012, the Adjudicating Authority proceeded to consider and reject the reply submitted by the petitioner in response to the show cause notice; and proceeded to impose service tax in the sum of Rs. 34,56,687/ - upon the petitioner besides levying penalty of Rs. 100/ - per day upto 17.04.2006 and Rs. 200/ - per day from 18.04.2006 under Section 76 of the Act of 1994 and a penalty of Rs. 34,56,687/ - under Section 78 of the Act of 1994.;