Show cause notice are not meant to be issued as a formality. SCN without proper information is meaningless: High Court

High Court also noted that the entire purpose of the Show Cause Notice is to enable the noticee to respond to the allegations on the basis of which an action is proposed.

The petitioner has filed the present petition, challenging the Show Cause Notice and order for cancellation of his GST Registration.

The petitioner has assailed the impugned SCN on the ground that it does not disclose any reason or ground for proposing cancellation of its registration and therefore none that could be addressed by the petitioner.

It is necessary to refer to the impugned SCN, which indicates that the only reason for which the petitioner’s registration was proposed to be cancelled was stated as, “others”.

Clearly, the impugned SCN fails to disclose any reason for the proposed action, and is incapable of eliciting a meaningful response from the petitioner. It is well settled that Show Cause Notices are not meant to be issued mechanically to comply with a formality; the same are issued to serve the principles of natural justice and to enable the concerned authority to take an informed decision. The entire purpose of the Show Cause Notice is to enable the noticee to respond to the allegations on the basis of which an action is proposed. Tested on the aforesaid anvil, the impugned SCN does not qualify to be considered as a Show Cause Notice at all.

The petitioner had responded to the impugned SCN by a letter dated 18.10.2022, inter-alia, stating that the notice was issued without providing proper information.

According to the respondent, the portal of the concerned officer issuing the impugned SCN reflected the reason in the remarks column which does not form a part of the impugned SCN communicated to the petitioner.

Mt Atul Tripathi, learned counsel appearing for the respondent submitted that the concerned officer has to select a reason for issuance of the Show Cause Notice, drop down menu in the GST common portal. Since none of the reasons in the drop down menu were considered apposite, the concerned officer had selected the option “others”. However, in the remarks column uploaded by the concerned officer, he had stated that the registration is proposed to be cancelled on the basis of a letter dated 22.09.2022 and the said letter was also uploaded.

It is seen that the impugned SCN as issued to the petitioner does not have any remarks referring to a letter dated 22.09.2022. It also does not mention the contents of the said letter, which would enable the petitioner to discern the allegations against it.

:

Principle of Natural Justice

:

Show Cause Notice

taxreply.com © 2024. All Rights Reserved