Prayagraj Power Generation Company Limited Vs Joint Commissioner (Corporate Circle) State Tax (Allahabad High Court)
The Allahabad High Court allowed a writ petition challenging assessment and appellate orders passed under the GST regime for the financial year 2017–18. The petitioner, engaged in generation and supply of electricity and sale of fly ash, questioned the legality of an ex parte assessment order dated 29.12.2023 and the appellate order dated 30.09.2024 confirming tax, interest, and penalty demands.
The proceedings originated from scrutiny of returns for July 2017 to March 2018. A notice in Form ASMT-10 dated 11.04.2023 was issued pointing out discrepancies and seeking a reply, which was not complied with. Subsequently, a show cause notice dated 17.09.2023 under Section 73 of the GST Act proposed demand of tax amounting to ₹20.71 crore, interest under Section 50, and penalty of ₹2.07 crore. The notice fixed the same date both for submission of reply and for personal hearing. A reminder dated 02.11.2023 again fixed a common date for reply and hearing. The petitioner sought further time to address the issues raised, but without fixing any fresh date of hearing, the authority passed an ex parte order on 29.12.2023 confirming the demand. The statutory appeal against this order was dismissed without detailed reasoning.
