In Brief
Indian Oil Corporation challenged demand notices for interest on Entry Tax under the U.P. Tax on Entry of Goods into Local Areas Act, 2007. The High Court dismissed the petitions as barred by res judicata. The Supreme Court set aside this dismissal, holding that the prior High Court judgment had expressly limited itself to three constitutional issues and deliberately de-tagged petitions specifically challenging interest, so res judicata could not bar the interest claim. The Court confirmed that the 2007 Act contains substantive provisions for charging interest through Section 33 of the VAT Act, 2008 incorporated via Section 13. The Court remitted the case to the High Court to determine the actual interest liability, including the effect of the interim order directing deposit in a separate interest-bearing account and whether interest could be charged for the pre-2007 period when the earlier Act was void.
The lawyer headnote and full judgment text are available to registered users.