M/S. Shree Ram Enterprises vs. The Superintendent Of Central Tax

Held

The Court did not delve into the merits of the contentions raised by either party. Instead, the Petitioner's counsel sought liberty to prefer an appeal against the Order-in-Original. The Petitioner acknowledged a potential delay in approaching the appellate authority and requested sympathetic consideration for condonation of delay. The Court granted liberty to the Petitioner to file an appeal within two weeks, subject to making the statutory pre-deposit and filing a delay condonation application. The Court directed that the appellate authority would consider the question of delay sympathetically, taking into account the facts and circumstances, and if satisfied, proceed to decide the appeal on its merits in accordance with law. The writ petition was disposed of with this liberty granted.

Facts

M/s. Shree Ram Enterprises (Petitioner) filed a writ petition before the Telangana High Court challenging an Order-in-Original (OIO) passed by the Superintendent of Central Tax (1st Respondent) under Section 73 of the CGST/SGST Acts, 2017, for the tax period 2020-21. The challenge was also extended to the accompanying Show Cause Notice (SCN) and the summary of the OIO in Form GST DRC-07 and the summary of the SCN in Form GST DRC-01. The Petitioner contended that these documents, uploaded on the GST portal, were unsigned, rendering them illegal, arbitrary, non-est in law, and violative of natural justice principles. The Respondents included the Superintendent of Central Tax, Union of India, CBIC, and the Assistant Commissioner of Central Tax.

Key Issues

1. Whether the Order-in-Original and the Show Cause Notice, along with their summaries uploaded on the GST portal without physical or digital signatures, are illegal, arbitrary, non-est in the eye of law, and violative of the principles of natural justice, contrary to the provisions of the CGST/SGST Act, 2017? Petitioner's Argument: The Petitioner argued that the OIO and SCN, and their respective summaries in Forms GST DRC-07 and GST DRC-01, were invalid and not authentic because they were unsigned documents. This lack of signature, they contended, made the entire action illegal, arbitrary, and a violation of natural justice principles, as well as contrary to the CGST/SGST Act, 2017. Revenue's Argument: The learned Senior Standing Counsel for CBIC submitted that the Petitioner was at liberty to prefer an appeal against the impugned Order-in-Original, taking all available grounds of law and fact before the appellate authority for the subject tax period.