Madras High Court sets aside a non-speaking tax order

Madras High Court sets aside a non-speaking tax order

The Court pointed out that the column available for the reason was conspicuously left blank

The Madras High Court has set aside the non-speaking order of the State Tax Officer on the ground of violation of principles of natural justice as the column available for reasons was conspicuously left blank with no reasons.

The matter titled Tvl. Naggaraj Anooradha v The State Tax Officer was placed before a single-judge Court of Justice Dr Anita Sumanth in the High Court of Madras.

The facts of the case are that the Petitioner – Registered Assessee was on the files of the Respondent – State Tax Officer under the Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (GST Act). The Petitioner had filed an e-application for a refund in respect of a deficiency memo. A show-cause notice was issued to the Petitioner proposing rejection of refund since there was a mismatch between the export value and the net ITC when compared to monthly returns. The Petitioner had responded to the show-cause notice by enclosing copies of the export invoice, inward supply bills and bank realisation statements.

The Court opined that the case appeared to be that two invoices relating to the month of March 2020 had been inadvertently omitted to be taken into account, which accounted for the mismatch. However, no personal hearing was afforded to the Petitioner prior to the adjudication of the request for a refund in order for this point to have been explained.

The Court observed that the impugned order was non-speaking with a column available for reasons on the basis of which the claim had been either accepted or rejected but this column was conspicuously blank and no reasons were adduced for the rejection of the request for the refund.

The Court, therefore, set aside the order bearing in mind the violation of principles of natural justice with a direction for a personal hearing.