Tvl. Bernard Karuthudaiyan Vs Deputy State Tax Officer – 2 (Madras High Court)
The petitioner is an assessee within the jurisdiction of the respondent State Tax Officer and failed to file GST returns for August 2024. Under Section 62 of the Tamil Nadu Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, when a registered person does not furnish returns despite notice under Section 46, the proper officer may assess tax liability to the best of his judgment by issuing an order. Sub-section (2) of Section 62 provides that if a valid return is furnished within thirty days from the service of such assessment order, the order is deemed withdrawn, although liability for interest and late fees will continue.
After issuing a GSTR-3A notice, the respondent passed a best-judgment assessment order on 16 October 2024. The petitioner subsequently filed the pending return belatedly on 21 November 2024. Although the statute prescribes a sixty-day limit for filing late returns, the Court noted that such time limits have been held by courts to be non-mandatory. Once the late return has been filed, the best-judgment assessment order is deemed to have been withdrawn automatically in terms of Section 62(2).
Applying the statutory mandate, the Madras High Court declared that the impugned order stood automatically withdrawn. The respondent may verify the filed return and issue a fresh show-cause notice if any short payment is found, and any amount already collected from the petitioner may be adjusted against future liabilities. The attachment placed on the petitioner’s bank account is to be lifted automatically. With these directions and liberty granted to the respondent, the writ petition was allowed without costs, and connected miscellaneous petitions were closed.
