TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (11) TMI 759
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....Shri. Arun Ajay Sankar, G.P. JUDGMENT PER 1. The petitioner is the Travancore Devaswom Board, and this writ petition is submitted by the petitioner Board, being aggrieved by Ext.P5 order passed by the 3rd respondent, in which the 3rd respondent refused to exercise the jurisdiction vested upon it under Section 98 of the CGST Act. 2. The petitioner Board obtained registration under the CGST Act as per Ext.P1, with effect from 27.02.2018. According to the petitioner, such a registration was necessitated in view of the fact that, the petitioner usually enters into contracts with various contractors for construction activities related to the Board. In respect of the certain income received by the petitioner Board, proceedings under Sect....
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.... from sale of advertisement space in print media viz. Devaswom publications; iv) Income from Form Sales: Income from sale of printed forms to the temple advisory committee aspirants; v) Income from appointment of purohits: Fees collected from Purohits for appointing them to perform special rituals like 'Vavubali', and the Purohits in turn perform rituals for the believers and receives Dakshina from them; and vi) Other Miscellaneous Supplies: Sales proceeds from stock & materials, wooden logs & building materials, hire of elephants and elephant paraphernalia etc. And also not discharging reverse charge liability on expenses under the head vii) Legal Charges: Charges paid to individual advocate(s) i....
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....ls outside the purview of GST. ii) Auction of broken coconuts: Devotees' offerings of coconut or broken coconut collected from temples under the jurisdiction of the petitioner is also given to persons, who were selected through tender or auction process. It is practically impossible to conduct daily weighing and auctions of these remnants. Hence the applicant selected persons over a period through tender process and charged a lump-sum value for the collection of coconuts accumulated from offerings of devotees at temples including Sabarimala and Pamba Devaswom. iii) Transfer of right to collect the cloths left by devotees in Pambariver: Devotees leave their clothes in Pamba river while bathing as part of rituals. The ap....
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.... legal fees. Tax payments on such types of expenditures are typically carried out under RCM, since the suppliers of services are unregistered persons. vii) Taxability_on_Transfer of right to perform Pulluvan Pattu_and Balithara at temples through auction process: Pulluvan Pattu and Balithara are the religious customs and rituals, performed by qualified priests or prominent religious figures (Acharyan). These activities are the sacred rituals and sacrificial ceremonies. performed under the temple jurisdiction, which are considered as integral part to the religious beliefs by devotees. The applicant selects the qualified person to perform these activities: through a competitive tender process and transfer the right annually. During t....
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....the temple. The applicant shall provide necessary infrastructure for the establishment and maintenance of these stalls. 4. However, Ext.P4 application submitted by the petitioner was rejected by the 3rd respondent as per Ext.P5, without considering the same on merits, on the ground that, the questions raised in the application were already pending in proceedings against the investigation by the Central GST Intelligence. This writ petition is submitted by the petitioner in such circumstances challenging Ext.P5. 5. I have heard, Sri. S Vishnu (Arikkattil), the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner, Sri. Arun Ajay Shankar, the learned Government Pleader for the respondent and Sri. P.T Dinesh, the learned Standing Counsel appearing....
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....3 that, none of the legal aspects relating to the taxability of the transactions referred to therein were considered on merits and instead, the proceeding itself was closed, taking note of the fact that the petitioner remitted the tax. As far as the proviso to Sub Section (2) Section 98 is concerned, the advance ruling authority can take a decision not to exercise the jurisdiction, only if the said question is already pending or decided in any proceeding in the case of an applicant under any of the provisions of the Act. The specific case of the petitioner is that, apart from Ext.P3, no other proceedings are pending or decided by any of the statutory authorities touching upon the questions raised in Ext.P4 application. On going through Ext.....