The Court noted that the petitioner had indeed filed the return prior to the issuance of SCN, and that the entire proceeding was triggered only due to non-communication in the prescribed form.

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.