Since, in the instant case, there has been a violation of principles of natural justice and the mandatory provision of Section 75(4) of the CGST Act, the Court is inclined to entertain the present petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India and quash the impugned order.

Issues Involved :-

This writ petition has been filed challenging the impugned proceedings. The case of the petitioner is that the impugned order has been passed by the respondent rejecting the appeal filed by the petitioner on the ground that there was a delay of 158 days in filing the said appeal. Even after the rejection of appeal on the aspect of delay, the petitioner can very well avail the Amnesty scheme. In such view of the matter, this Court directs the petitioner to avail the Amnesty scheme in terms of Notification No.53/2023-Central Tax dated 02.11.2023.

The petitioner submitted that the authority, while passing the order has only looked at form GSTR - 2A of the supplier and has not taken into consideration the plea, raised by the petitioner. Let this petition be listed on 07th February, 2024.

This writ petition has been filed challenging the impugned order passed by the respondent. The impugned assessment order came to be passed against the dead person, which is non-est in law and hence, it is liable to be set aside. Therefore, this Court is of the considered view that the petitioners shall construed the notice issued by the respondent as a notice issued to them as on date.

Factual matrix of the case

The challenge in the present writ petition is to Show Cause Notice in Form DRC-01issued under Section 73 of the CGST Act, 2017. The Show Cause Notice, from the plain reading, seems to be one which has been issued in a mechanical manner without application of mind and without any cogent sufficient materials available. This Court also finds sufficient force in the submissions made by the learned counsel for the petitioner when they say that since the proceeding has been initiated under Section 73 of the Act, the very provision of Section 73 of the Act starts with the words where it appears to be for the authority concerned which by itself means that at the time where the authority appears to found it necessary for initiating the proceedings, there ought to had been some material, information or even sort of a complaint available with them as regards the suspicious transactions or the alleged evasion of tax made by the petitioner. Show Cause Notice would not be sustainable as they are bereft of facts and materials and the same deserves to be and is accordingly set aside/quashed.

The petitioner has filed the present petition impugning the order cancelling the petitioner’s GST registration with effect from 23.05.2022.It is noticed that the petitioner’s registration has been cancelled with retrospective effect from 23.05.2023. Neither the SCN nor the impugned order provides any reasons for doing so. The respondent is directed to forthwith restore the petitioner’s GST registration.

The instant writ petition is filed by the petitioner being aggrieved by the action of the appellate authority of dismissing the appeal filed by her against cancellation of the GST registration treated the same as time barred. The writ petition filed by the petitioner deserves to be allowed as the petitioner has sufficiently explained the reasons for filing the appeal with delay. Hence, the instant writ petition is allowed and the impugned order is set aside.

Since the petitioner had complied with the terms of the show cause notice by furnishing the returns, there was no lawful justification to impose the penalty. The impugned orders are contrary to law and passed on non application of mind.

This writ petition is allowed and the order passed by the appellate authority is set aside and directed to decide the appeal filed by the petitioner against cancellation of GST Registration on merits expeditiously while treating the same within limitation.

This writ petition u/Art. 226 of the Constitution assails the legality, validity and propriety of show-cause notice on the sole ground that the show-cause notice is non-speaking and thus insufficient for the petitioner/assessee to prepare an effective reply and defend himself thereby violating the principles of natural justice. This Court sees no reason to interfere in this matter especially in view of the non-availed statutory remedy of appeal u/S 107 of the M.P. GST Act, 2017.