Allahabad HC imposed cost of Rs.50000 on State Govt. for arbitrary cancellation of GST registration

Case Details: Drs Wood Products v. State of U.P - [2022] 141 taxmann.com 263 (Allahabad)

Judiciary and Counsel Details

• • Pankaj Bhatia, J.
  • Alok Singh & Suyash Agarwal for the Petitioner
  • C.S.C. & Digvijay Nath Dubey for the Respondent.

Facts of the Case

The authorities issued a Show Cause Notice (SCN) to the petitioner for cancellation of registration on the ground that petitioner is not functioning / non-existing at the principal place of business. It passed an order of cancellation of registration after noting no reply to SCN from the petitioner. The petitioner got to know that its registration has been cancelled during the generation the E Way Bill (i.e. no communication for cancellation of registration was received by the petitioner). The petitioner applied for the revocation of cancellation of registration along with the extension of time to submit its reply to SCN. The officer rejected the application for revocation of registration without considering the petitioner’s request.

High Court Held

On filing the petition before the Hon’ble Allahabad High Court, it was noted that authorities have not relied upon any report or any inquiry conducted to form the opinion and on what basis was the allegation levelled that the tax payer was found non-functioning. The rejection order does not indicate as to when the inspection was carried. The High Court held that a vague SCN without any allegation or proposed evidence against the petitioner, clearly is violative of principles of administrative justice. The actions are clearly not in consonance with the ease of doing business, which is being promoted at all levels. In view of the above, the High Court has quashed the order passed by authorities and it further imposed a cost of Rs.50,000/- on the State Government for harassing the petitioner.