THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE P.SAM KOSHY AND THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE SUDDALA CHALAPATHI RAO Writ Petition No.610 of 2023 ORDER: (per Hon’ble Sri Justice P.SAM KOSHY The instant Writ Petition is filed by the petitioner under Article

226 of the Constitution of India praying the Court to issue a Writ, Order or Direction more particularly one in the nature of a Writ of Certiorari calling for the records and to quash the show-cause notice No.V/ST/18/30/2018-Refunds, dated 03.11.2022, issued by respondent No.3 as being wholly without jurisdiction, contrary to the statutory provisions and binding precedents, and also arbitrary, illegal, unjust, contrary to law and without authority of law (for short, ‘the impugned order’)

2. Heard Mr.S. Niranjan Reddy, learned Senior Counsel appearing on behalf of Ms.Rubaina S. Khatoon; and Mr. Bommineni Vivekananda, learned Junior Standing Counsel appearing on behalf of Ms.K. Rajitha, learned Standing Counsel for Union of India, for respondent Nos.1 to 3.

3. The matter revolves around refund of service tax claimed by petitioner in respect of rental income generated by leasing out space for duty-free shops and warehouses at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, at Hyderabad.

4. The claim for refund was originally rejected by the adjudicating authority, i.e., the Deputy Commissioner Central Tax, Shamshabad Division, Hyderabad, vide order dated 08.05.2020 in Order-in-Original No.58/ST/2019-20/Adj-(DC), which was subjected to challenge before the Office of the Commissioner of Customs and Central Tax (Appeals-I). Vide Order-in-Appeal No.09.2019-RR(ST), dated 30.11.2021, the Commissioner of Appeals set aside the impugned order and allowed the appeal by holding that the petitioner is entitled for refund of service tax paid earlier. The said order dated 30.11.2021 of the Appellate Authority was reviewed by a High-Power Committee of the respondents in terms of the powers conferred under the said Committee under Section 86(2a) of the Finance Act, 1994 read with Section 174 of the G.S.T. Act, 2017. The said Committee, on reviewing the order of the Appellate Authority, vide Recommendation dated 09.03.2022 recommended that the findings arrived at by the Appellate Authority seems to be erroneous and contrary to the judicial precedents of the recent past. Therefore, the said Committee accordingly instructed the respondent-Department to go in for an appeal. Thereafter, respondent No.3 preferred an appeal before the Customs, Excise & Service Tax Appellate Tribunal, Regional bench, Hyderabad, (for short, ‘CESTAT’) where a case had been registered as Appeal No.ST/30043/2022-ST (DB). Though the said appeal had been filed as early as in 2022, till date the said appeal is pending consideration by the Tribunal. It is also pertinent to mention that the Tribunal till date had not granted any stay of effect and operation of the order passed by the Commissioner of Appeals vide Order-in-Appeal No.09.2019-RR(ST), dated 30.11.2021.

5. Meanwhile, pursuant to the order passed by the Appellate Authority, the respondent-Department had also refunded the service tax collected for the area which was rented for warehouses and duty-

free shops.

6. The grievance of petitioner is that, pending the appeal for consideration by the Tribunal, and without an interim order granted therein by the Tribunal so far as effect and operation of the order passed by the Appellate Authority is concerned, the impugned show- cause notice No.V/ST/18/30/2018-Refunds, dated 03.11.2022, had been issued by respondent No.3 to the petitioner seeking for an explanation as to why an amount of Rs.9,71,04,995/- be not recovered from petitioner and also why interest should not be charged on the said amount for the period the amount stood in the account of petitioner.

7. Aggrieved, the instant Writ Petition had been filed by the petitioner.

8. Learned Senior Counsel, appearing on behalf of Ms.Rubaina S. Khatoon, learned counsel for the petitioner, contended that that once w