The firm's indirect-tax practice has been led by its founding partner since 1989 — Sales Tax and Central Excise then; VAT, Service Tax, and GST since. We appear before the Madras High Court and the appellate tribunals. The statute names have changed; the underlying discipline — careful statutory reading, command of the facts, sharp framing of the issue — has not.
Where I appear
- Madras High Court
- GST Appellate Tribunal and predecessor sales-tax tribunals
- CESTAT (Central Excise & Service Tax)
- Departmental adjudications and revision proceedings
Matters typically handled
- Constitutional challenges. Vires of provisions, retrospective amendments, levy disputes.
- Classification and rate disputes. Tariff classification, exemption notifications, rate of tax.
- Input tax credit. Denial, reversal, recovery — the busiest GST litigation theme of the past five years.
- Valuation. Related-party transactions, free supplies, post-supply discounts.
- Refund matters. Particularly export refunds and inverted-duty-structure refunds under GST.
- Search, seizure, and prosecution. Writ proceedings against high-handed departmental action.
- Advance rulings. Strategic use of AAR for clarity ahead of business decisions.
A note on advisory
A meaningful share of indirect-tax work happens before the show-cause notice arrives. We advise corporate clients on the tax position of new contracts, restructurings, and inter-state arrangements — the kind of opinion that, written well, either prevents the dispute or wins it before the adjudicating authority.