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2016 (7) TMI 473 - KERALA HIGH COURTTour operator services - giving on hire the vehicle - Adjudicating while confirmed the demand observed that, they are not mere owners of contract carriages let on hire to customers. The staff of the carriage including the driver is operating the trips and tours. The carriages are used for marriage parties, excursions and group trips. It is not a mere instance of hiring of contract carriage. - The main contention urged by the petitioners is based on Ext.P2 judgment of this Court. Ext.P2 judgment will not render any assistance to the petitioners. It was only an observation and cannot bind the department to form an opinion that merely for the reason that the vehicles are given for hire, service tax cannot be imposed. Held that:- When the petitioners were relegated to the appropriate authority and the right to contest the validity of the provisions were left open, it has to be assumed that there is no finality attached to the observation made by the learned Single Judge. Therefore I do not think that the judgment in Ext.P2 had in any way curtailed the right of the assessing authority to consider on facts as to whether the petitioners are tour operators or not. - Further, the authority had come to a finding that petitioners are not mere hirers. Petitioners are not persons who merely hire the vehicle, whereas it amounts to operation of the tour itself. That apart, the following words in the statute “any person engaged in the business of operating tours in a tourist vehicle covered by a permit” is liable to be termed as a tour operator. The finding by the assessing authority is that “the conditions printed on the specimen order form supplied to customers clearly show that the trips are in fact operated by the assessee and is not just a hiring of contract carriage”. It is also found that the staff of the carriage including the driver is operating the trips and tours. - All relevant facts had been considered and the authorities had come to a proper decision which cannot be termed as illegal or perverse - Decided against the petitioner.
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