In what would be termed a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court of India held that input tax credit (ITC) cannot be claimed on the construction of buildings. The Indian Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Sections 17(5)(c) and (d) and Section 16(4) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, that curb the availability of ITC on the inputs and services used in the construction of immovable property.In this case, companies involved in real estate and infrastructure development challenged some of the provisions of the CGST Act when those insisted that it was arbitrary and discriminatory to deprive them of ITC in respect of inputs and services used in the construction of buildings or other immovable properties. Section 17(5)(c) and (d) of the CGST Act has explicitly levied not to avail ITC on goods or services used in construction of an immovable property; it does not apply, however, if such property is constructed to sell or likely to be used for business. The petitioners submitted that such a distinction was violative of Article 14 of the Constitution, resulting in creating an arbitrariness between those businesses which were allowed to claim ITC and those which were not. On these arguments, the Supreme Court held that the validity of the impugned sections was not affected. It observed that the GST law was framed with the objective of achieving the seamless flow of input tax credit on goods and services consumed in a business, however, the legislation also permitted some exclusions for policy reasons. The Court argued that Section 16(4) of the CGST Act has actually restricted the time available for claiming ITC. Under this provision, an assessee can claim ITC within two years from the date of an invoice. Petitioners approached this provision similarly and argued that it discriminates against long-term construction projects as a guise for its absolute restraint on the time component relating to the availability of ITC. On these grounds, the Supreme Court also allowed the provision, labeling it reasonable and necessary for compliance in time and to prevent tax fraud.