Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

3. Coming to the Lease Line Connectivity, it has been contended by the appellants that they only provided the Lease Line Connectivity and did not provide access to any data and therefore it cannot come within the scope of Online Information and Database Access and Retrieval Services. The appellants have also contended that they are not providing any data or information retrievable or otherwise to the customer in the electronic form through a computer network and that they had merely taken lease line connection for their clients and paid service tax charged by such authority on such lease line connection. We find that in the Show Cause Notice or in the impugned order it is nowhere elucidated as to how lease line connectivity provided by the appellants fell in the category of Online Information and Database Access and Retrieval services when they did not provide any data or information. As per Section 105(75) of Finance Act 1994 Online Information and Database Access and Retrieval Services means providing data or information, retrievable or otherwise to a customer, in electronic form through a computer network. When no data or information was provided by the appellants nor does the Show Cause Notice contain any allegation to that effect, the question of sustaining this component of impugned service tax demand under Online Information and Database Access and Retrieval Service simply does not arise. Therefore the demand of Rs.6,90,674/- under this category is not sustainable on merit itself.