1. Petitioner impugns order dated 03.01.2024 whereby the appeal of the Petitioner has been dismissed solely on the ground that the same is barred by limitation. Petitioner also impugns order dated 27.06.2019 whereby the GST registration of the Petitioner was cancelled retrospectively with effect from 01.07.2017 and also impugns Show Cause Notice dated 02.03.2019.

1. Petitioner impugns order dated 24.04.2024 whereby the impugned Show Cause Notice dated 10.12.2023, proposing a demand of Rs. 2,92,00,063.00 against the petitioner had been disposed of and a demand including penalty has been created against the petitioner. The order has been passed under Section 73 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (hereinafter referred to as the Act).

1. This is a writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India wherein the petitioner is aggrieved by the order dated April 19, 2022 passed by the Assistant Commissioner, State Tax, Sector -7, Agra (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Respondent No. 2’), order dated July 12, 2022 passed by the Assistant Commissioner, State Tax, Sector – 5, Agra (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Respondent No. 3’), and the order dated November 24, 2022 passed by the first appellate authority. Vide order dated November 24, 2022, the appeal filed by the Petitioner was dismissed as time barred.

1. Petitioner seeks quashing of Show Cause Notice dated 27.03.2024, whereby the GST registration of the petitioner has been suspended.

Respondents to handover all the original documents to petitioner which have been seized by them and not relied on by Respondents while issuing Show Cause notices dated 08.06.2022 and 03.08.2022, so that the petitioner is enabled in submitting his reply. It is further directed that upon receipt of original documents by Petitioner, the petitioner shall submit his reply within a period of 30 days and the Respondents shall adjudicate the case of the petitioner on its own merits after receipt of reply by affording due opportunity of hearing to the petitioner.

The writ petitioner challenges the cancellation of their GST registration due to consecutive six-month non-filing of returns. The order dated 25th January, 2022 cancelling the petitioner’s registration is set aside and the registration is restored back to its original position. The department is directed to permit the petitioner to file the return for the period from December, 2020 till date. The petitioner is directed to file the return from this date on a regular basis complying with the provisions of law.

Petitioner has made out a case that Petitioner has missed out the receipt of the notice as it was merely uploaded on the portal under the category of “Additional Notices” tab and accordingly could not respond to the Show Cause Notice. Since the only reason for passing the impugned order is that Petitioner had not filed any reply/explanation, Petitioner needs to be granted one opportunity to respond to the Show Cause Notice and thereafter, the Show Cause Notice to be re-adjudicated.

Merely, because a taxpayer has not filed the returns for some period does not mean that the taxpayer’s registration is required to be cancelled with retrospective date also covering the period when the returns were filed and the taxpayer was compliant. The Petitioner does not seek to carry on business or continue the registration, the impugned order dated 30.11.2022 is modified to the limited extent that registration shall now be treated as cancelled with effect from 25.04.2022 i.e., the date when petitioner filed an application seeking cancellation of GST registration.

Petitioner impugns order dated 15.03.2024, whereby, a demand has been created against the Petitioner on account of alleged excess claim of Input Tax Credit for the financial year 2018-2019. Learned counsel for the Petitioner submits that it was categorically stated in the reply that Form GSTR-2A, GSTR-8A and GSTR-9, as available on the portal, clearly demonstrate that there was no excess claim of Input Tax Credit by the Petitioner and the Proper Officer has erred in not even looking at the same. The impugned order dated 15.03.2024 is set aside. Show Cause Notice is restored on the file of the Proper Officer, who shall re-adjudicate the Show Cause Notice in accordance with law after examining the reply filed by the Petitioner and after giving an opportunity of personal hearing to the Petitioner within the period prescribed under Section 75 (3) of the Act.

Hon`ble Court is inclined to remand the matter back to the adjudicating authority viz. , the Assistant Commissioner to consider the submissions made by the assessee, afford an opportunity of personal hearing, examine the annual return filed in GSTR-9 and proceed to take a fresh decision on merits and in accordance with law.

1. Heard Sri Aditya Pandey, learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri Ankur Agarwal, learned counsel for the revenue.

1. Heard Shri Suyush Agarwal, learned counsel for the applicant and Shri Ankur Agarwal, learned counsel for the respondents.