{"id":55300,"date":"2026-03-18T16:11:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T16:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/my.legal500.com\/developments\/?post_type=press_releases&#038;p=55300"},"modified":"2026-03-18T16:11:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T16:11:41","slug":"ksk-secures-supreme-court-victory-for-hamdard-rooh-afza-classified-as-fruit-drink-2","status":"publish","type":"press_releases","link":"https:\/\/my.legal500.com\/developments\/press-releases\/ksk-secures-supreme-court-victory-for-hamdard-rooh-afza-classified-as-fruit-drink-2\/","title":{"rendered":"KSK Secures Supreme Court Victory for Hamdard; Rooh Afza Classified as \u2018Fruit Drink\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>New Delhi, February 25, 2026:<\/strong> King Stubb &amp; Kasiva (KSK) successfully represented Hamdard (Wakf) Laboratories before the Supreme Court of India in a significant VAT classification dispute concerning its flagship product, <em>Sharbat Rooh Afza<\/em>, under the Uttar Pradesh Value Added Tax Act, 2008.<\/p>\n<p>In a reportable judgment (2026 INSC 195), a Bench comprising Hon\u2019ble Justices B.V. Nagarathna and R. Mahadevan set aside the decision of the Allahabad High Court and held that <em>Rooh Afza<\/em> is classifiable as a \u201cfruit drink\u201d under Entry 103 of Schedule II (Part A), attracting VAT at the concessional rate of 4% instead of 12.5% under the residuary entry for the period 2008-2012.<\/p>\n<p>The Court ruled that regulatory or licensing classification cannot control or curtail the interpretation of a fiscal entry. It further held that the Revenue has failed to discharge further held that the burden lies on the Revenue to justify classification under a residuary entry, which was not discharged in the present case. Lastly, the Court held that resort to the residuary entry is impermissible where classification under a specific entry is reasonably and sustainably possible.<\/p>\n<p>Senior Advocate Arvind Datar appeared for Hamdard, briefed by the KSK team comprising Aditya Bhattacharya (Partner), Vipin Upadhyay (Partner), Simran Tandon (Associate Partner), Ritwik Tyagi (Associate), and Akriti Sharma (Associate).<\/p>\n<p>The ruling is an important precedent on VAT\/GST classification of traditional beverage concentrates and limits on the use of residuary entries by tax authorities.<\/p>\n<p><strong>About King Stubb &amp; Kasiva (KSK)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>King Stubb &amp; Kasiva is a full-service Indian law firm with a pan-India presence and a team of over 200 legal professionals. The firm advises multinational corporations, financial institutions, government bodies, and emerging businesses across key practice areas including corporate and M&amp;A, dispute resolution, taxation, intellectual property, regulatory, media and entertainment, employment and technology laws.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-55300","press_releases","type-press_releases","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.legal500.com\/developments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/55300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.legal500.com\/developments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.legal500.com\/developments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press_releases"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.legal500.com\/developments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}