Jharkhand High Court provides relief to the assessee under CGST Act
The bench observed that the order passed by the department was illegal
Jharkhand High Court provides relief to the assessee under CGST Act
The bench observed that the order passed by the department was illegal
The Jharkhand High Court has quashed forms DRC-01 A and DRC-02 issued along with the show-cause notice sent to the assessee. The division bench held that the authorities had not provided an opportunity of hearing to the assessee as per the provisions of the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Act, 2017.
The petitioner, Om Sai Ram Enterprises approached the court contending that under the CGST Act, provisions were incorporated for the issuance of intimation prior to the issuance of the show-cause notice by the assessing officer (AO). It argued that the respondent-authority treated the information/intimation under Section 74 (5) of the Act to be show-cause notice, which was not legal.
The petitioner said it meant that the respondent had already pre-judged and pre-decided the entire issue and fastened the liability upon the petitioner. It maintained that it was not given any no direction to file its representation/reply and no date of hearing was fixed by the respondent-authority.
A bench comprising Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice Deepak Roshan observed that DRC-01 A (intimation of tax), DRC-02 (summary of statement), and intimation of liability, under the CGST Act, were issued on the same date (25 February 2020).
Thereafter, on 04 June, the summary of the show-cause notice in the form of DRC-01 along with the show-cause notice was issued, fixing the date as 03 July for filing the reply. But without giving any opportunity for a hearing and without fixing any date for the hearing, the adjudication order was passed on 06 July.
Directing a fresh adjudication, the court held, "The lacuna was committed by the respondents in non-compliance of the statutory provisions of the CGST Act and the settled principles of natural justice. The issue of reasonable opportunity has been dealt with in detail in the case of NKAS Service Pvt. Ltd. reported in 2021-VIL-732-Jhar. Further, in the case of Godavari Commodities Ltd. (supra), the matter has been further clarified about the requirement of personal hearing."