Consulting Engineer classification applied to software-related advisory and implementation services on identical facts, rejecting Management Consultancy treatment.

Software-related activities involving sales, development, maintenance, consultancy, training and implementation support were treated as Consulting Engineer services rather than Management Consultancy services. The same Bench had already accepted this classification for the same assessee on similar facts, and that binding view was followed for the later period because the underlying activity and legal issue had not changed. On that basis, the impugned orders could not be sustained. The appeals succeeded, and consequential relief followed.

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Issues: Whether the appellant's software-related activities, including sales, development, maintenance, consultancy, training and implementation support, were classifiable as Consulting Engineer services or as Management Consultancy services.

Analysis: The dispute was covered by the appellant's own earlier case, in which the same Bench had accepted that the activities in question were in the nature of Consulting Engineer services and had rejected the Revenue's attempt to treat them as Management Consultancy. Following that binding view for the same assessee and on similar facts, the impugned orders could not be sustained. The subsequent period did not justify a different classification where the underlying activity and legal issue remained the same.

Conclusion: The appellant's activities were held to fall under Consulting Engineer services and not under Management Consultancy; the finding was in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The appeals succeeded and the impugned orders were set aside with consequential relief.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the assessee's software-related activities are substantially advisory and engineering-oriented, and the same issue has already been decided on identical facts, the services may be classified as Consulting Engineer services rather than Management Consultancy services.

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