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Synopsis

A Division Bench of Justice K.R. Shriram and Justice A.S. Doctor of the Bombay High Court has set aside an order passed by the GST authority for not giving reasonable time to the petitioner to file a reply and directed the respondent to pay a cost of Rs.10,000 and contribute the same to the PM Cares Fund.

The case pertains to a show cause notice issued to the petitioner wherein only 7-day time was given to reply to the notice and on the 8th day, an order was passed by the authorities.

Mr. Thakkar for the petitioner argued before the court that Section 73(8) of the MGST Act permits a person chargeable with tax under sub-section (1) or sub-section (3) a period of 30 days from the issuance of the show-cause notice to make payment of such tax along with interest payable under Section 50.

The court while agreeing with the submissions of the counsel of the petitioner noted that the statutory period of 30 days cannot be reduced arbitrarily to 7 days. Further, the bench noted that the orders were passed without application of mind and against the provisions of the act.

The court went on to state that

“The acts/omissions of Respondents’ officers is adding to the already overburdened dockets of the Court. Valuable judicial time is wasted because such unacceptable orders are being passed by Respondents’ officers”

While setting aside the order passed by the respondent the court directed the respondent to pay a sum of Rs.10000 as a donation to the PM Cares fund and noted that

“A copy of this order shall be forwarded to the CBIC and to the Chief Commissioner of State Tax, Maharashtra, so that they could at least hold some kind of training and/or orientation session/course, etc. to apprise and educate its officers on the prevailing law and rules framed thereunder and also explain to them what ‘principles of natural justice’ mean.”

Case Title: Sheetal Dilip Jain versus State of Maharashtra & Ors.