High Court Rules Against Reissue of GST Notice for Delayed Filing of GSTR-3B Returns

Case Details: Ambey Mining (P.) Ltd. v. Commissioner of State Tax - [2023] 152 taxmann.com 516 (Jharkhand)

Judiciary and Counsel Details

• • Rongon Mukhopadhyay & Deepak Roshan, JJ.
  • K. Kurmy, N.K. Pasari & Ms Sidhi Jalan, Advs. for the Petitioner.
  • Ashutosh Anand, AAG-III for the Respondent.

Facts of the Case

The Proper Office straight away passed an order demanding interest for delayed filing of GSTR-3B returns. The petitioner challenged the order on the ground that the officer did not issue any show cause notice as mandated under Section 73 of CGST Act, 2017.

The Joint Commissioner of State Tax (Appeal) accepted the contentions of the petitioner and allowed the appeal filed by the petitioner and determined the interest as NIL. However, after 20 months, the GST Officer again issued SCN and demanded interest for delayed filing of GSTR-3B returns. It filed writ petition against the impugned SCN.

High Court Held

The Honorable High Court noted that the department cannot re-agitate and issue fresh show cause notices again for same cause of action covering same period against which order passed by first Appellate Authority has been accepted by department and the same has attained finality. In the present case, fresh adjudication proceedings were initiated for self-same cause of action which was already finalized by first appellate order and it was contrary to settled law. Therefore, it was held that the impugned notices were devoid of jurisdiction, hit by res judicata and thus liable to be set aside.