The main legal point established is that the interest under Section 11BB of the Excise Act is payable from the date immediately after the expiry of three months from the date of receipt of an application for refund, and the Adjudicating Authority must consider the actual dates of application for refund.

JUDGMENT

Vibhu Bakhru, J.

1. The petitioner (Blackberry India Pvt. Ltd.) has filed the present petition impugning an order dated 04.05.2023 (hereafter `the impugned order') passed by the Adjudicating Authority to the extent that it denies the petitioner's claim for interest under Section 11BB of the Central Excise Act, 1944 (hereafter `the Excise Act') read with Section 83 of the Finance Act, 1994 (hereafter `the Finance Act'), on the amount of refund sanctioned.

2. In terms of the impugned order, the Adjudicating Authority has sanctioned the refund of unutilised Cenvat Credit as claimed by the petitioner, but has denied the interest on the said amount, on the ground that the refund has been sanctioned within a period of three months, as contemplated under Section 11BB of the Excise Act read with Section 83 of the Finance Act. The impugned order indicates that the Adjudicating Authority had considered the date of application for refund as 07.02.2023, instead of the dates on which the applications were first made.

3. At the material time, the petitioner was, inter alia, engaged in providing services to Blackberry Singapore Pte. Ltd., an overseas entity. The petitioner claimed that the services provided by it to Blackberry Singapore Pte. Ltd. constituted export of services in terms of the Service Tax Rules, 1994 and therefore, was entitled to refund of unutilised Cenvat Credit.

4. The petitioner made three separate applications for refund of unutilised credit for different tax periods. A tabular statement setting out the claims for refund of unutilised Cenvat Credit is set out below:

5. The above tabular statement was also noted by the Adjudicating Authority in the impugned order.

6. The aforesaid claims were not processed and the Adjudicating Authority issued a Show Cause Notice dated 22.01.2020, proposing to reject the petitioner's claim for refund on the ground that the place of provision of services was in India. According to the Adjudicating Authority, the petitioner had rendered the services in question as an intermediary. Thus, notwithstanding that the recipient of the services was located outside India, the place of service was in India. Thereafter, the Adjudicating Authority passed an Order-in-Original dated 31.08.2020 rejecting the petitioner's claim for refund on the aforesaid ground.

7. The petitioner appealed the Order-in-Original dated 31.08.2020 before the Appellate Authority [Commissioner (Appeals)]. The Appellate Authority dismissed the appeal by an Order-in-Appeal dated 19.08.2021, and upheld the Order-in- Original dated 31.08.2020.

8. Aggrieved by the said Order-in-Appeal, the petitioner preferred an appeal before the learned Custom, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (hereafter `the CESTAT'), which was allowed by a final order No. 51150/2022 dated 07.12.2022.

9. Notwithstanding that the petitioner had succeeded before the CESTAT, the petitioner's claim for refund was not processed immediately. The petitioner once again sent a letter dated 07.02.2023, seeking refund of the amount of Rs.8,55,34,345/- along with the interest under Section 11BB of the Excise Act.

10. In the meanwhile, the Revenue filed an appeal against the Order dated 07.12.2022 passed by the CESTAT before this Court (SERTA 7/2023 captioned Principal Commissioner, Central Excise and CGST-Delhi South v. Blackberry India Private Limited). The said appeal was dismissed by an order dated 12.07.2023.

11. However, prior to that, the Adjudicating Authority processed the petitioner's claim for refund and granted the same in terms of the impugned order.

12. The controversy, essentially relates to the petitioner's claim for interest on the amount of refund. The Adjudicating Authority has rejected the same on the ground that the pet