R. Banumathi, CJ.

The writ petitions relate to the dispute between the writ petitioners, who are contractors and Bharat Coking Coal Limited (in short “BCCL”) in respect of reimbursement of Service Tax as per Clause 11(vii) of Contract Agreement and Clause 13 of the Work Order. In the writ petitions, the petitioners seek for a direction for quashing of the Corrigendum/Amendment dated 2.3.2012 and also letter dated 4.1.2013 and also seek for a direction that the reimbursement of Service Tax has to be done by the service receipt, irrespective of any adjustment availed by way of CENVAT credit by the petitioners/contractors. Since common issues are involved in all these writ petitions, they were heard together and are being disposed of by this common order.

2. The petitioners are engaged in providing services of “Hiring of HEMM (Heavy Earth-Moving Machinery) for removal of Over Burden, Extraction and Transportation of Coal”. The respondent-BCCL is a Public Limited Company, as Public Sector Undertaking and engaged in mining of coal and other mining activities. The BCCL floated various Notices inviting Tender (in short, “NIT”) from time to time for removal of Over Burden, Extraction and Transportation of coal from various mines of the company within the district of Dhanbad in the State of Jharkhand. The petitioners participated in these NITs and their bids were accepted. Accordingly, the work order was given to the petitioners for the said work on different rates fixed with respect to different areas of operation. The petitioners were awarded different works on different dates in 2009 in various mines/various areas of Respondent-company/BCCL.

The details of the work order/contract agreement are as under:

Case No. Name of Company Name of work Work amount

W.P.T. No. 254 of 2013 M/s Dhansar Engineering Co. Pvt. Ltd. Nit No. BCCL/GM(CMC)/F-HEMM-OS/2008/1107 dt. 17-12-2008 Rs. 253,56,43,140/-

W.P.T. No. 257 of 2013 M/s Avinash Transport Nit No. BCCL/GM(CMC)/F-HEMM-OS/2009/733 dt. 08-06-2009 Rs. 161,13,52,070/-

W.P.T. No. 262 of 2013 M/s BKB Transport Pvt. Ltd. NIT No. BCCL/GM(CMC)/F-HEMM-OS/1034 dt.26-11-2008 Rs. 42,71,93,600/-

W.P.T. No. 859 of 2013 M/s Sadbhav Engg. Ltd. NIT No. BCCL/GM(CMC)/F-HEMM-OS/2011/1043 dt. 25-10-2011 Rs. 287,75,82,720/-

W.P.T. No. 860 of 2013 M/s VIN-Balaji-JTT(JV) NIT No. BCCL/GM(CMC)/F-HEMM-OS/2010/1079 dt. 23-07-2010 Rs. 55,30,93,200/-

W.P.T. No. 906 of 2013 M/s Calcutta Industrial Supply Corporation NIT No. BCCL/GM(CMC)/F-HEMM-OS/2010/1071 dt. 21-07-2010 Rs. 65,40,85,000/-

W.P.T. No. 2701 of 2013 M/s Dhanbad Engineering & Mining Organization J.V. NIT NO. BCCL/GM(CMC)/F-HEMM-OS/2009/996 dt. 22-07-2009 Rs. 31,58,82,000/-

Some of them had already been concluded by the petitioners whereas some of them are still in operation.

3. Pursuant to the work orders given to the petitioners, the works are executed by the petitioners. As and when bills/invoices were raised, the petitioners were receiving the payments by Respondent-company/BCCL towards works executed and the Service Tax was later reimbursed by the Respondent-company after claim for such reimbursement was lodged by the petitioner-contractor. Contract Agreement contains Clause 11(vii) in terms of which the Service Tax will be reimbursed by BCCL to the petitioners/contractors.

4. The case of the petitioners/contractors is that as and when the bills/invoices were raised, the petitioners were receiving the payments and the Service Tax was later reimbursed by the BCCL after a claim for such reimbursement was lodged by the petitioners. The Functional Directors (FDs) of BCCL have approved the Amendment/Corrigendum in respect of the Service Tax reimbursement clause in the NIT for different tenders. As per the Corrigendum/Amendment, to have clarity in the system Service Tax will be reimbursed only to the extent that the contractor makes payment by cash or cash remittance by e-payment. In terms of the clause (4) of the said Amendment/Corrigendum, it was declared that