Education Consultancy Firm to foreign university Not Intermediary, Delhi High Court allows GST Refund

The High Court of Delhi, presided over by a division bench comprising the Hon’ble Mr Justice Nitin Wasudeo Sambre and the Hon’ble Mr Justice Ajay Digpaul, pronounced an important Judgement in the case of Fateh Education Consulting Private Limited v. The Assistant Commissioner, CGST Division, Wazirpur, and others, bearing case No. W.P. (C) 17500/2025. A Delhi-based education consultancy company providing marketing and recruitment support services to foreign universities, the petitioner initiated a challenge to an order dated October 30, 2025, promulgated by the Assistant Commissioner, Central Tax, GST Division, Wazirpur, that denied its refund claim of Rs 2,63,38,771 concerning Integrated GST for September 2023 to March 2024.

At that juncture the GST Department had denied the refund under the same law, saying that the petitioner was an intermediary under Section 2(13) of the IGST Act; hence, it acted in the manner of foreign universities, and therefore, in the absence of such international services, it ruled that its services did not constitute an export of the services. The petitioner countered that it gets consideration from foreign universities, charges nothing from Indian students, and cannot bind universities or guarantee student admissions.

The division bench made a firm ruling in the petitioner’s favour, finding that the receipt of commission from a foreign university does not by itself render a company an intermediary. The court stressed that determinative factors are who pays the consideration, who the contractual recipient of the service is, and the nature of the service provided and not where incidental beneficiaries (students, among others) of such a service may be present.

The court had relied on the judgements of Commissioner of Delhi Goods and Service Tax DGST v. Global Opportunities Private Limited and K.C. Overseas Education Pvt. Ltd. v. Union of India, which was decided in the Bombay High Court, and which were later upheld by the Supreme Court. Accordingly, the impugned rejection order was set aside and the GST Department was ordered to carry out the full refund with applicable statutory interest within two months.