VCES eligibility depends on absence of prior notice or adjudication on the same issue; pending proceedings bar the declaration.

A declaration under the Service Tax Voluntary Compliance Encouragement Scheme, 2013 was unavailable where a show cause notice on the same issue had already been issued and adjudication was pending before 1 March 2013. The Scheme required that no notice or order of determination be in existence for the relevant default, and its proviso also barred declarations for subsequent periods on the same issue once proceedings had already begun. The one-year limitation for rejection of false declarations did not govern the separate threshold question of eligibility. On that basis, the designated authority was within jurisdiction to reject the declaration, and the rejection was upheld.

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Issues: Whether the petitioner's declaration under the Service Tax Voluntary Compliance Encouragement Scheme, 2013 was liable to be rejected because a prior show cause notice and adjudication relating to the same issue had already been initiated and were pending, thereby disentitling the petitioner from availing the Scheme.

Analysis: The Scheme permitted declaration only where no notice or order of determination under the relevant service tax provisions had been issued before 1 March 2013. The proviso to the provision governing declarations barred a declaration on the same issue for any subsequent period where a notice or order of determination had already been issued. The Court also distinguished the provision dealing with rejection after false declarations and held that the one-year limitation in that provision did not control the threshold question of eligibility. Since a show cause notice on the same issue had already been issued and adjudication was pending, the declaration made by the petitioner was contrary to the statutory scheme and the designated authority acted within jurisdiction in rejecting it.

Conclusion: The declaration was not maintainable under the Scheme and its rejection was upheld.

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