In Brief
The Supreme Court held that a body corporate providing consultancy engineering services qualifies as a 'consulting engineer' under Section 65(31) of the Finance Act, 1994, even before the 2005 amendment, and is liable to pay service tax. The Court interpreted the word 'firm' in the definition to include companies, finding no rational basis to exclude body corporates while taxing individuals and partnership firms providing identical services. Such exclusion would create an absurd anomaly contrary to the statute's scheme and object. The Court remanded the matter to the tribunal to decide other issues on merits.
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