Permanent Establishment under DTAA cannot be reopened on identical facts after binding High Court findings.

Earlier binding rulings in the assessee's own case controlled the Article 5 DTAA question, because the same contractual framework and business activities had already been examined by the jurisdictional High Court. On those identical facts, the Tribunal treated the permanent establishment issue as covered by final findings for prior years and agreed with the CIT(A) that no permanent establishment existed in India for the relevant year. The revenue's challenge to taxation of offshore supply and onshore service receipts therefore failed because the PE issue could not be reopened on the same facts.

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Issues: Whether the assessee had a permanent establishment in India under Article 5 of the DTAA between India and UAE and whether the resulting offshore supply and onshore service receipts were taxable in India.

Analysis: The assessee's case for the relevant year was found to be covered by earlier decisions in its own case for prior assessment years, where the jurisdictional High Court had already held that no permanent establishment existed in India. The Tribunal noted that the same contractual framework and business activities had been examined earlier and that the issue had attained finality in the assessee's favour for earlier years. In that background, the CIT(A)'s view that the assessee did not have a permanent establishment in India during the relevant year was held to be consistent with the binding earlier decisions.

Conclusion: The assessee was held not to have a permanent establishment in India for the relevant year, and the revenue's grounds challenging the deletion of the additions failed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the relevant contractual activities and DTAA issue have already been decided in the assessee's own case by the jurisdictional High Court, the question of permanent establishment under Article 5 of the DTAA is covered by the earlier binding finding and cannot be reopened on the same facts.

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