CENVAT credit documentation defect treated as procedural; remand rejected when Revenue raised a new ground beyond the notice.

CENVAT credit was treated as allowable where the underlying airway bills contained the necessary particulars and the only objection was that credit had been taken through a cargo sales report; that defect was regarded as merely procedural because the tax suffered under the supporting documents was not in dispute. The attempted objection that the assessee was an intermediary and not engaged in output service could not be used to justify remand, because that ground was outside the scope of the show cause notices, which addressed only the alleged invalidity of the documents. Credit was therefore not to be denied on the impugned documentation, and remand on a new ground was impermissible.

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Issues: Whether CENVAT credit could be denied on the ground that it was taken on a cargo sales report summarising airway bills, and whether the Revenue could seek remand on a ground not raised in the show cause notice.

Analysis: The documentation used for availing credit was held to be adequate where the underlying airway bills contained the relevant particulars and the alleged defect was only that credit was taken on a summary cargo sales report. The reasoning treated such deficiency as a minor procedural matter, especially when there was no dispute that the service tax reflected in the underlying documents was actually suffered and accounted for. The attempt to dispute entitlement on the separate premise that the assessee was an intermediary and not engaged in output service was found to be beyond the scope of the show cause notices, which had proceeded only on the alleged invalidity of the documents.

Conclusion: The credit could not be denied on the basis of the impugned documentation, and remand on an entirely new ground was not permissible. The Revenue's appeal was dismissed.

Ratio Decidendi: Credit cannot be denied for a merely procedural defect in documentation when the substantive requirements are met, and adjudication cannot travel beyond the grounds set out in the show cause notice.

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