Sri Pritam Sovasaria vs. The Union Of INDIA

Facts

The petitioner, Sri Pritam Sovasaria, filed a writ petition challenging a Show-Cause Notice dated July 10, 2025, issued by the Superintendent, CGST, proposing cancellation of his GST registration. The registration was suspended effective July 10, 2025. The petitioner later filed an Interlocutory Application (IA) to bring on record a final order of cancellation of registration, which had been passed subsequent to the initial writ petition. Respondents 5 and 6, from the State of West Bengal, were served dasti. The respondents argued that the cancellation order constituted a fresh cause of action and that the writ petition had issues with territorial jurisdiction. The petitioner sought to withdraw the present writ petition with liberty to file a fresh one challenging the cancellation order.

Held

The Court allowed the withdrawal of both the writ petition and the interlocutory application. The petitioner was granted liberty to file a fresh writ petition challenging the final order of cancellation of GST registration. The Court directed that no coercive action would be taken against the petitioner for a period of 7 days from the date of the order, which would end on the following Monday. The petitioner was also granted liberty to pray for an interim order in the fresh writ petition, which would be considered in accordance with law. The Court did not decide on the merits of the territorial jurisdiction or the validity of the cancellation order itself, as the petition was withdrawn.

Key Issues

1. Whether the final order of cancellation of GST registration, passed after the filing of the writ petition, constitutes a fresh cause of action that requires independent challenge (Question of law). The petitioner argued that the final order of cancellation should be challenged independently and sought withdrawal of the current petition with liberty to file a fresh one. The revenue contended that the cancellation of registration is a fresh cause of action requiring independent challenge, not an IA. 2. Whether the writ petition is maintainable on the aspect of territorial jurisdiction (Question of law). The State of West Bengal respondents argued that there would be serious issues regarding the maintainability of the writ petition on the aspect of territorial jurisdiction. They also noted that their proceedings were still at the stage of reply submission to a Show Cause Notice dated July 17, 2025, suggesting no cause of action had arisen from their end.