Service tax exemption claims require factual adjudication; writ interference with remand to post show cause notice stage was unwarranted.

Taxability of the petitioners' services, including claimed exemption and negative list coverage, required factual adjudication by the competent authority rather than writ intervention. The remand to the post show cause notice stage, with liberty to file replies and additional replies, was found to involve no jurisdictional error. As the order merely restored the matters for factual determination and some proceedings had been set aside consequentially, interference in writ appellate jurisdiction was unwarranted. The challenge to the remand order therefore failed, and refusal to quash the show cause notices was upheld.

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Issues: Whether interference was warranted with the order remitting the matters to the stage of post show cause notice and whether the show cause notices could be quashed on the ground that the services claimed were exempt or fell within the negative list.

Analysis: The dispute turned on whether the petitioners could establish exemption from service tax and the applicability of the negative list without a factual adjudication by the competent authority. The order under challenge had merely relegated the matters to the post show cause notice stage, preserved liberty to file replies or additional replies, and in some matters set aside the original adjudication orders and consequential proceedings. The Court held that the determination whether the petitioners' services were taxable or exempt required examination of factual aspects, and no jurisdictional error was shown in the order of remand. In such circumstances, interference under writ appellate jurisdiction was found unwarranted.

Conclusion: The challenge to the remand order failed and the refusal to quash the show cause notices was upheld.

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