No indirect tax on Assignment or transfer of long-term leasehold rights for industrial plots: Supreme Court dismisses SLP against GCCI [Read Order]

In a recent judgement, the Supreme Court of India rejected a batch of Special Leave Petitions filed by the Union of India, thereby upholding the Gujarat High Court's decision that no Goods and Services Tax (GST) is leviable on the assignment or transfer of long-term leasehold rights for industrial plots.

The top court heard the matter on July 21, 2026 before a Bench of Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe. The SLPs have been filed against the consolidated judgment dated 3rd January, 2025 passed by the Gujarat High Court in a huge batch of nearly fifty interconnected petitions led by the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry. When the issues were called for hearing, a few interlocutory applications submitted by the petitioners seeking the condonation of delay in filing and refiling the petitions were also taken up for examination. The Supreme Court approved the delays.

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The Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry and its member-industrialists disputed the show-cause notices and summons issued by the tax authorities. The petitioners argued that GIDC had allotted plots on 99-year lease and the subsequent assignment of such leasehold rights to third parties for lump-sum consideration amounted to absolute transfer ofimmovable property. They argued that no "service" element was involved in the transaction as the assignor effectively ceases to be in a legal relationship with the lessor.