HC set aside summary order issued within 5 days of SCN without giving opportunity of hearing

Case Details: Chitra Automobile v. State of Jharkhand - [2023] 147 taxmann.com 102 (Jharkhand)

Judiciary and Counsel Details

• • Aparesh Kumar Singh, A.C. J. & Deepak Roshan, J.
  • Ravi Kumar, Akata Anand, Bhawesh Kumar & Sneha Sonam for the Appellant.
  • Sachin Kumar for the Respondent.

Facts of the Case

The petitioner was engaged in trading of two wheeler bikes and its parts which were sold to the various customers. The department issued show cause notice (SCN) along with FORM GST DRC-01 stating that the petitioner had violated provisions. Thereafter, the summary of order was issued within 5 days without giving any opportunity of hearing. The petitioner filed writ petition and contended that SCN issued was in a format without striking out irrelevant particulars and order was passed without hearing opportunity.

High Court Held

The Honorable High Court observed that the summary of SCN should be issued “along with” SCN that provide for contraventions. The word “along with” would indicate that SCN as well as summary of SCN both have to be issued. However, in the instant case, the SCN was vague in nature since it didn’t spell out the contraventions against petitioner.

Further the Court noted that as SCN issued was vague, the foundation of proceedings would suffer from material irregularity. Moreover, summary of order issued within 5 days of issuing summary of SCN was also in violation of principles of natural justice. Thus, it was held that summary of SCN and summary of order issued were liable to be set aside and matter was remanded for fresh consideration.