High Court directs SBI to pay ₹ 215.11 crore GST to AP government
The Hindu
It allows the bank to seek alternate remedy from appellate forum concerned.
A division bench of the Andhra Pradesh (AP) High Court comprising Justices U. Durga Prasad Rao and B. Krishna Mohan refused to entertain a Writ Petition (WP) filed by the State Bank of India (SBI) against an obligation to pay ₹ 215.11 crore towards under-declared GST to the Government of AP on an exempted turnover and directed it to seek an alternate remedy from the appellate forum concerned. The SBI had filed the WP challenging an order of assessment issued by the Deputy Commissioner of State Tax (Audit, No.1 Division, Vijayawada), wherein the bank was held liable to pay GST to the tune of ₹ 215,10,75,375. The bank had primarily contended that it was not liable to pay any tax since it was not rendering any service while levying penal interest on defaulters.Several principals of government and private schools in Delhi on Tuesday said the Directorate of Education (DoE) circular from a day earlier, directing schools to conduct classes in ‘hybrid’ mode, had caused confusion regarding day-to-day operations as they did not know how many students would return to school from Wednesday and how would teachers instruct in two modes — online and in person — at once. The DoE circular on Monday had also stated that the option to “exercise online mode of education, wherever available, shall vest with the students and their guardians”. Several schoolteachers also expressed confusion regarding the DoE order. A government schoolteacher said he was unsure of how to cope with the resumption of physical classes, given that the order directing government offices to ensure that 50% of the employees work from home is still in place. On Monday, the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) had, on the orders of the Supreme Court, directed schools in Delhi-NCR to shift classes to the hybrid mode, following which the DoE had issued the circular. The court had urged the Centre’s pollution watchdog to consider restarting physical classes due to many students missing out on the mid-day meals and lacking the necessary means to attend classes online. The CAQM had, on November 20, asked schools in Delhi-NCR to shift to the online mode of teaching.