The Court said that for a service provider to qualify as an intermediary, three parties must be involved. In this case, services were provided solely to IDP Australia under a principal-to-principal contract, with no direct dealings or agreements between IDP India and foreign universities or studen

CESTAT upheld service tax and interest on Pondicherry Engineering College’s technical testing services but waived the penalty for lack of intent to evade.

The Court held that jurisdictional facts cannot be assumed or wrongly decided to clothe an authority with powers it does not possess. It said that Section 74 cannot be invoked mechanically to extend limitation periods unless the stringent test of fraud or suppression is met.