M/S Ave Maria Traders vs. The Joint Commissioner
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Cause title — parties, addresses and appearances
ORAL ORDER
In this petition, the petitioner seeks the following reliefs: “(a) Issue a writ of certiorari, or such other writ, Order or direction as this Hon'ble Court may deem fit and quash the impugned adjudication order bearing No. CTO/LGSTO- 152/2023-24/T No. 2494/24 dated 18.03.2024 is enclosed as Annexure "D" along with consequential summary of order in Form GST DRC-07 summary of the order dated 19.03.2024 with Reference No. ZD2903240498054 enclosed as Annexure - "D1" Issued by Respondent No. 2. (b) Issue a writ of certiorari, or such other writ, Order or direction as this Hon'ble Court may deem fit to quash the impugned rejection of appeal communication in Form GST APL-02 dated at Annexure- "F" issued by Respondent No. 1. (c) To restore the appeal dated 22.07.2024 filed at Annexure -"E" to the file of Respondent No. 1 by quashing the rejection communication at Annexure - F issued by Respondent No. 1 оr; NC: 2025:KHC:16835 (d) to remit the matter to the file of Respondent No. 2 at the stage of post-show cause notice by providing an opportunity to file reply to the show cause notice No. CTO/LGSTO- 152/DRC-01/Scrutiny-226/2023-24 dated 14.12.2023 at Annexure-C issued by Respondent No. 2 and to participate in the fresh adjudication proceedings.
(e) To also pass such other order, make such other direction or writ as this Hon’ble High Court may deem fit and appropriate in the facts and circumstances of the case, and in the interests of justice.”
Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and learned AGA for the respondents and perused the material on record.
A perusal of the material on record will indicate that on 14.12.2023, respondent No.2 issued show-cause notice to the petitioner under Section 73(1) of the GST Act, 2017, to which the petitioner did not submit reply nor produced any documents, as a result of which respondent No.2 proceeded to pass the impugned exparte adjudication order dated 18.03.2024. Aggrieved by the said order, the petitioner filed an appeal before the First Appellate Authority on 24.07.2024, along with an application for condonation of delay of 29 days in filing the appeal. The said application for condonation of delay in filing the appeal was rejected by the NC: 2025:KHC:16835 Appellate Authority, which proceeded to dismiss the appeal vide impugned order dated 05.08.2024, aggrieved by which, the petitioner is before this Court by way of the present petition. It is further submitted that the inability and omission on the part of the petitioner to submit reply along with documents to the show-cause notice and contest the proceedings was due to bonafide reasons, unavoidable circumstances and sufficient cause and as such, the impugned adjudication order as well as the order of appellate authority deserve to be set aside and the matter be remitted back to respondent No.2 for reconsideration afresh, in accordance with law.
Per contra, learned AGA appearing for the respondents submits that there is no merit in the petition and that the same is liable to be dismissed.
A perusal of the material on record will indicate that it is an undisputed fact that the impugned order at Annexure-D dated 18.03.2024 passed by respondent No.2 was an exparte adjudication order, without the petitioner submitting his reply or documents to the show-cause notice dated 14.12.2023. Under these circumstances, in order to provide on more opportunity, by NC: 2025:KHC:16835 adopting a justice oriented approach, I deem just and appropriate to set aside the impugned adjudication order and remit the matter be remitted back to respondent No.2 for reconsideration afresh, in accordance with law.
In so far as the impugned order at Annexure-F dated 05.08.2024, since the appeal was dismissed on the ground of delay by rejecting the application for condonation of delay, the said order refusing to condone delay and dismissal of the appeal as barred by delay would not constitute merger of the order with the order of appellate authority and consequently, the order of the appellate authority will not come in the way of this Court exercising its juri iction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India and setting aside the adjudication order and remit the matter back to respondent No.2 for reconsideration afresh in accordance with law.
In the result, I pass the following: ORDER i) The petition is allowed. ii) The impugned order at Annexure-D dated 18.03.2024 issued by respondent No.2 and the impugned Annexure- NC: 2025:KHC:16835 F dated 05.08.2024 issued by respondent No.1 are hereby set aside. iii) The matter is remitted back to the stage of submitting reply to the show-cause notice at Annexure-C dated 14.12.2023. iv) Liberty is reserved in favour of the petitioner to submit documents, pleadings etc., which shall be considered by respondent No.2 in accordance with law. v) The petitioner is directed to appear before respondent No.2 on 19.05.2025, without awaiting further notice. vi) In the event the petitioner does not appear before respondent No.2 on 19.05.2025, this order shall automatically stand recalled/revived, without further reference to the Bench. (S.R.KRISHNA KUMAR) JUDGE
BMC List No.: 2 Sl No.: 79
Reproduced from the public record of the Karnataka High Court. Verify against the court's own copy before relying on it. Income tax judgments are on bharattax.net.