Form DRC-07 Alone can’t Make an Assessee Liable to Pay any Tax, Interest or Penalty: HC

Case Details: Shree Ram Agrotech v. State of Jharkhand - [2023] 152 taxmann.com 82 (Jharkhand)

Judiciary and Counsel Details

• • Rongon Mukhopadhyay & Deepak Roshan, JJ.
  • Rahul Lamba, Adv. for the Petitioner.
  • Ashok Kumar Yadav, Sr.S.C.-I for the Respondent.

Facts of the Case

The petitioner was engaged in the business of trading of ferrous waste and scrap, iron, steel, ingots and other metal articles. It received a recovery notice based on alleged summary order, which was based on DRC-07. However, the petitioner was not provided with show cause notice or detailed adjudication order in terms of Section 73 of GST Act.

It filed appeal but the Appellate authority dismissed the appeal. Thereafter, it filed writ petition and contended that detailed adjudication order, as required under section 73 (9) of GST Act, 2017, had not been passed by the department.

High Court Held

The Honorable High Court noted that the adjudication order was not available on records of the SGT department. Since no detailed adjudication order, as required under section 73 (9) was passed, the petitioner was not liable to pay any tax, interest or penalty only on basis of said Form DRC-07. The Court also noted that Form DRC-07, alone cannot make an assessee liable to pay any tax, interest or penalty and this ground was not considered by the Appellate Authority. Therefore, the Court held that the summary order in Form GST DRC-07 and recovery notice were liable to be quashed.