Provisional Attachment Must Cease to Subsist Once Final Order of Assessment Had Been Passed u/s 74 | HC

Case Details: Rina Jaiswal v. Commissioner of Central Tax - [2023] 154 taxmann.com 329 (Telangana)

Judiciary and Counsel Details

• • Ujjal Bhuyan, CJ. & N. Tukaramji, J.
  • Ms Y. Siri Reddy, Adv. for the Petitioner.
  • Dominic Fernandes, Ms B.L. Prasuna, Parsa Ananth Nageswara Rao, B. Mukherjee & Ms B. Kavitha Yadav, Advs. for the Respondent.

Facts of the Case

In the present case, the petitioner’s bank accounts and properties were provisionally attached by the GST department under Section 83 of CGST Act, 2017. Subsequently an order-in-original was passed against which petitioner had preferred appeal but it was unable to deposit the amount pre-deposit. It filed writ petition seeking release of attachment of bank accounts.

High Court Held

The Honorable High Court noted that as per section 107(6) of CGST Act, no appeal can be filed unless appellant has paid full tax admitted by him and ten per cent of remaining amount of tax in dispute arising from said order, in relation to which appeal had been filed. However, Section 107(7) of CGST Act provides that where appellant had paid amount under sub-section (6), recovery proceedings for balance amount shall be deemed to be stayed.

It is settled law that once a final order of assessment had been passed, in that case, order of provisional attachment must cease to subsist. In the instant case, the order-in-original was passed under Section 74 of CGST Act. Therefore, the Court held that the impugned orders of attachment were liable to be quashed and set aside.