The Supreme Court has stayed the order of the Bombay High Court delivered in (Writ Petition 1927/2011 holding that levy of service tax on advocates is constitutionally valid. Earlier, in 2011, P C Joshi a practicing advocate of Mumabi had filed the said write petition to declare levy of service tax on advocates under section 65(105) (zzzzm)   of the Finance Act, 1994 as inserted by the Finance Act, 2011   on advocates as   ultra vires arbitrary and violative of the Constitution of India. In fact the Bombay High Court had remarked  that “what holds good for chartered accountants and architects must equally apply to other professionals such as advocates, and who too are well conscious of their status.“

The full order of the Supreme Court as delivered on 10-08-2015 is as under

ITEM NO.37 COURT NO.1 SECTION III
SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS

Petition(s) for Special Leave to Appeal (C)....CC No(s).13944/2015
(Arising out of impugned final judgment and order dated 15/12/2014 in WPL No. 1764/2011 passed by the High Court of Bombay)

BOMBAY BAR ASSOCIATION Petitioner(s)

VERSUS

UNION OF INDIA & ORS. Respondent(s)
(With appln. (s) for c/delay in filing and refiling SLP and office report)

Date : 10/08/2015 This petition was called on for hearing today.

CORAM : HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ARUN MISHRA
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE AMITAVA ROY

For Petitioner(s)         
Mr. K.K. Venugopal,
Sr. Adv. Dr. A.M. Singhvi,
Sr. Adv. Mr. K.V. Vishwanathan, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Mahesh Agarwal, Adv.
Ms. Parul Shukla, Adv.
Mr. Rishabh Parekh, Adv.
Mr. Rohit Bhat, Adv.
For Mr. E. C. Agrawala, Adv.

For Intervener(s)        
Mr. Ashok Desai, Sr. Adv.
Mr. V. Shekhar, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Dushyant Dave, Sr. Adv.
Ms. Aishwarya Bhati, Adv.
Ms. Anu Bindra, Adv.
Mr. S.S. Ray, Adv.
Ms. Rakhi Ray, Adv.

For Respondent(s)

UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following

ORDER

Delay condoned.

Notice.

Tag with S.L.P.(C) No.10855 of 2015.

Until further orders, there shall be interim stay of the operation and implementation of the impugned final order and judgment passed by the High Court of Judicature at Bombay in W.P.(L) No.1764 of 2011, dated 15.12.2014

 

(Neetu Khajuria)                      (Vinod Kulvi)
Sr.P.A.                                    Assistant Registrar

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