The assessee was registered as a medium enterprise under the 2006 Act and was unable to deliver or complete various projects contracted with the Government or public sector undertakings due to constraints that arose from the covid-19 pandemic lockdown. Due to these defaults, the contracting Government undertaking or authority deducted liquidated damages under the contracts entered into with the assessee. On a writ petition whether the assessee was entitled to take the benefits of “Vivad se Vishwas I-Relief MSME Scheme” introduced by the Finance Ministry by an Office Memorandum dated April 11, 2023, while in February 2024 it was reclassified as “not a micro, small and medium enterprise” with effect from May 9, 2023,  allowing the petition to the extent of eligibility of the assessee to avail of the benefits of the scheme without going into the merits of the assessee’s claim, the Court held that    even though the assessee was reclassified as “not a micro, small and medium enterprise” (by virtue of upward reclassification) with effect from May 9, 2023, for a period of three years from May 9, 2023, it was entitled to avail of all non-tax benefits available to a medium enterprise. Since the scheme was a non-tax benefit applicable even to a medium enterprise the assessee was entitled to make a claim under the scheme. Such view was also supported by the affidavit-in-reply of the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. Therefore, it was wrongly held that the assessee was not entitled to make claim under the Vivad se Vishwas | Scheme. It was clarified that the merits of the claim had not been gone into by the court but only the eligibility of the assessee to avail of the scheme had been decided. The merits thereof would have to be considered and decided by the respondents in accordance with the provisions of the scheme.