M/S Shree Radhemani Steels (A Partnership Firm) vs. State Of Chhattisgarh

Held

The Court held that the writ petition was premature. While the petitioner contended that a show-cause notice was not issued and the order was not supplied, the court's perusal of the annexed documents revealed that a notice dated 13.02.2020 was issued, to which the petitioner had filed a reply. Subsequently, another notice was issued on 14.05.2020, for which no reply was filed. A summary show-cause notice in Form GST DRC-01 was then issued on 26.06.2020 under Section 74 of the Act read with Rule 142 of the Rules, followed by a tax assessment order dated 01.09.2020. The Court observed that this assessment order is an appealable order under Section 107 of the Chhattisgarh Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. Since the petitioner had not availed the statutory remedy of appeal before the appellate authority, the writ petition filed directly before the High Court was considered premature. Therefore, the Court was not inclined to entertain the petition at that stage.

Facts

The petitioner, M/s Shree Radhemani Steels, challenged an order dated 26.06.2020 and subsequent proceedings initiated by the respondent authorities. The petitioner contended that the order was passed without supplying a copy of it or issuing a show-cause notice as required by Section 74 of the Chhattisgarh Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. However, the court perused the annexed documents, which indicated that a notice dated 13.02.2020 was issued by the Assistant Commissioner regarding discrepancies in returns for financial years 2017-2018, 2018-2019, and 2019-2020, specifically concerning claimed input tax credit against a bogus dealer. The petitioner had replied to this notice. A subsequent notice was issued on 14.05.2020 for the same discrepancies, to which no reply was filed. Consequently, a summary show-cause notice in Form GST DRC-01 was issued on 26.06.2020 under Section 74 of the Act read with Rule 142 of the Rules, followed by a tax assessment order dated 01.09.2020 imposing a total tax of Rs.37,93,343/-.

Key Issues

1. Whether the order dated 26.06.2020 and subsequent proceedings are liable to be quashed for non-compliance with Section 74 of the Chhattisgarh Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, specifically the alleged non-issuance of a show-cause notice and non-supply of the order copy. (Petitioner's contention). The petitioner argued that the respondent authorities failed to supply a copy of the order dated 26.06.2020 and did not issue a show-cause notice as mandated by Section 74 of the Act, rendering all subsequent proceedings invalid. The respondents, through the court's perusal of documents, presented evidence of notices issued and a reply filed by the petitioner, followed by a summary show-cause notice and an assessment order, suggesting procedural compliance. The court also noted that the assessment order is appealable under Section 107 of the Act.