M/S Sea Rock Bilders INDIA vs. State Of Up And Another
Facts
The petitioner, M/s Sea Rock Bilders India, a proprietorship firm, assails orders dated December 30, 2023, a notice dated September 28, 2023, and an appeal acknowledgement dated September 11, 2024. The petitioner's GST registration was cancelled effective October 1, 2022, with cancellation order dated December 15, 2022. A show cause notice under Section 73 of the Act was issued on September 28, 2023, for the tax period July 2017 to March 2018 (FY 2017-18). The petitioner claims they could not see this notice as it was posted in 'additional notices and orders' on the GST portal, not the main 'notices and order' section, due to their cancelled registration. Consequently, they could not respond or appear for the hearing fixed for October 28, 2023. An appeal filed against the subsequent order was dismissed for latches. The petitioner argues this violates natural justice.
Held
The Court held that it is not in dispute that the show cause notice was uploaded in the 'additional notices and orders' section instead of the main 'notice and order' section of the GST portal. Consequently, the impugned order was passed ex-parte without affording the petitioner an opportunity of personal hearing. The Court found that the issue is squarely covered by the Division Bench judgments of this Court in M/s Mr Associates and Mahaveer Trading Company. Therefore, the writ petition was allowed, and the impugned orders were set aside. The matter was remanded to the assessing authority to issue a fresh notice to the petitioner within one week. The petitioner is directed to submit its reply within 15 days of receiving the notice, after which the adjudicating authority shall pass a reasoned and speaking order within two months, affording due opportunity of hearing.
Key Issues
1. Whether the impugned order dated December 30, 2023, passed by respondent no. 2, is liable to be set aside on the grounds of violation of principles of natural justice, specifically the failure to provide a proper opportunity of hearing to the petitioner, as contemplated under Section 73 of the CGST Act, 2017? Petitioner's arguments: The petitioner contends that the show cause notice was not properly served as it was uploaded in the 'additional notices and orders' section of the GST portal, which they could not access due to their registration being cancelled. This prevented them from appearing for the personal hearing or filing a reply, leading to an ex-parte order. They rely on the Division Bench judgments in M/s Mr Associates Vs. State of UP and Mahaveer Trading Company Vs. Deputy Commissioner State Tax. Respondent's arguments: The learned ACSC supports the impugned order.
Sections Cited
Section 73
AI-generated summary — verify with the full judgment below
Neutral Citation No. - 2025:AHC:91424 Court No. - 10 Case :- WRIT TAX No. - 1798 of 2024 Petitioner :- M/S Sea Rock Bilders India Respondent :- State of U.P. and Another Counsel for Petitioner :- Rishi Raj Kapoor Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C. Hon'ble Piyush Agrawal,J.
Heard Mr. Rishi Raj Kapoor, learned counsel for the petitioner and Mr. Ravi Shanker Pandey, learned ACSC for the State- respondents.
By means of present petition, the petitioner is assailing the orders dated 30.12.2023 passed by respondent no. 2 ( for tax period of July, 2017 to March 2018 F.Y. 2017-18), notice dated 28.9.2023 issued by respondent no. 2, and impugned acknowledgement for submission of appeal dated 11.9.2024 passed by respondent no. 3. 3. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the petitioner is a proprietorship firm having GSTIN No. 09AAJFM0370J1Z5. He submits that the registration number was surrendered by the petitioner and an order of cancellation of registration was passed on 15.12.2022 and registration was cancelled w.e.f. 1.10.2022. He further submits that a show cause notice dated 28.9.2023 in FORM GST DRC 01 was issued by respondent no. 2 under Section 73 of the Act in which
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