Bombay HC Stays GST Demand Notice issued to an Advocate

Recently, the Bombay High Court stayed a demand notice issued by Assistant Commissioner of Central Goods and Service Tax (GST) seeking to levy a tax (service) on a lawyer for providing legal services.

The Bench comprising Hon’ble Justice Ujjan Bhuyan and Hon’ble Justice Milind Jadhav granted an interim stay on the show-cause and demand notice dated 28.12.2020 until further orders.

The petitioner in the case is Advocate Sanjiv Madhusudan Shah.

Before the Court, the petitioner contended that the Central Government had issued several exemption notifications stating services provided by an individual as a lawyer or a partnership firm of lawyers are exempted from GST (service tax). He also submitted that there is a provision for recovering service tax from the service recipient.

The petitioner contended that the department ignored the provisions mentioned above and issued the demand notice.

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After listening to the contentions, the Court stayed the demand notice and issued notice to the Assistant Commissioner of CGST.

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