The Madras High Court has refused to quash the show-cause notice issued against popular Tamil music composer Harris Jayaraj by the Directorate General of GST Intelligence in Chennai, concerning the levying of service tax for his musical works.A division bench comprising Justice R Suresh Kumar and Justice C Saravanan stated that the show-cause notice could not be challenged in the High Court. However, the petitioner has the right to contest it before the adjudicating authority. The court, in its ruling, referred to a previous judgment in the Vendhar Movies vs The Joint Director case, concluding that the assessee (Harris Jayaraj) should approach the adjudicating authority with any objections.
The court emphasized that the objections should be evaluated by the authority independently and without external influence. The bench granted Harris Jayaraj the liberty to submit his objections to the adjudicating authority, which was instructed to render a decision on the matter within four weeks.
The case originated from a show-cause notice issued in 2018, where the GST intelligence accused Harris Jayaraj of evading service tax for his musical contributions. In response, the composer approached the High Court, arguing that under Section 65 B (44) of the Finance Act, 1994, service tax is applicable only if an individual carries out activities for another person, which is deemed a service.