Exemption for Advocate-to-Advocate Services renders tax proceedings without jurisdiction and leads to quashing of demand.

Notifications No.25/2012 and No.30/2012 exempt legal services by an individual advocate or a firm and treat the provider's service-tax liability as nil while placing liability on the service recipient; applying that statutory allocation the HC concluded that proceedings launched and continued against the petitioner without addressing these notifications were without jurisdiction and therefore invalid. Consequently the show cause notice, the confirming demand order and the recovery communication were quashed and set aside, and the petition allowed in the terms sought.

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Issues: Whether the impugned show cause notice dated 19.12.2020, the order dated 28.03.2024 and the recovery communication dated 21.07.2025 requiring the petitioner to pay service tax can be quashed on the ground that services by an individual advocate to an advocate or a firm of advocates are exempt or the liability is nil under Notification No. 25/2012-Service Tax and Notification No. 30/2012-Service Tax, thereby rendering the designated officer's proceedings without jurisdiction.

Analysis: The notifications dated 20th June 2012 specify (a) exemption of legal services by an individual advocate or a partnership firm of advocates by way of legal services and (b) that in respect of services provided by an individual advocate or a firm of advocates by way of legal services the percentage of service tax payable by the person providing service is Nil with the person receiving service liable (table entry). The impugned proceedings proceeded notwithstanding the applicability of these notifications and did not accept or address the contention that service tax was not leviable on the individual advocate in the circumstances of the case. Prior decisions applying the same notifications and reasoning were relied upon to conclude that proceedings initiated contrary to the notifications are without jurisdiction.

Conclusion: The impugned show cause notice, the order confirming the demand and the recovery communication are quashed and set aside on the ground that the proceedings were initiated and continued contrary to Notification No. 25/2012-Service Tax and Notification No. 30/2012-Service Tax, and therefore without jurisdiction; petition allowed in terms of prayer (a).

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