2014 (6) TMI 94

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..... Appellant. Shri Amrish Jain, SDR, for the Respondent. ORDER The prayer in the application is to dispense with the conditions of pre-deposit of service tax of Rs. 249,97,74,237/- confirmed against the appellant on the allegation and finding that they have provided the taxable services under the category of "management, maintenance and repair service". The said demand stands confirmed by way of i .....

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..... y is required to perform statutory function. In exercise of said function, the appellant has undertaken the maintenance and repair of the road. It is the contention of the learned Advocate appearing for the appellant that such maintenance and repair of the road was being done by the appellant as statutory obligation. Further drawing our attention to the definition of the maintenance and repair ser .....

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..... ating authority submitted that the obligation under the Act to maintain the road amount to contract, in which case, the appellant is liable to pay service tax. 5. For the purpose of stay, we refer to the contention of absence of contract between the appellant and the State of Madhya Pradesh. For proper appreciation of definition of "management, maintenance and repair service" is given in Sec .....

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..... ct. Admittedly, in the present case, there is no contract entered into by the appellant with Madhya Pradesh Government. As such, we are of the view that the appellants are entitled to unconditional stay on this ground itself. 7. At this stage, we also refer to the decision of the Tribunal where under similar facts and circumstances, unconditional stays were granted. One such reference is to .....

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..... the appellant for pleading the limitation aspect. As such, at this prima facie stage, we are of the view that the appellant is not required to deposit any amount of duty as condition of hearing of their appeal. We accordingly, dispense with the conditions of pre-deposit of demand and stay recovery during the pendency of the appeal. The stay petition is allowed accordingly. (Pronounced in the ope .....

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