Garg Associates Vs State of Assam And 3 Ors (Gauhati High Court)
The Gauhati High Court examined a writ petition challenging proceedings initiated under Section 73 of the GST Act for the tax period July 2017 to March 2018. The petitioner was issued a Summary of Show Cause Notice (SCN) in Form GST DRC-01 along with an attachment relating to tax determination. The petitioner contended that no proper SCN was issued and therefore no reply was filed. Subsequently, an order was passed in Form GST DRC-07 on the ground that payment was not made within 30 days. It was also contended that both the summary and attachments were not authenticated by any signature of the Proper Officer.
The petitioner argued that under Rule 142 of the CGST Rules, issuance of a proper SCN under Section 73 is mandatory, and the summary in DRC-01 is only supplementary. It was submitted that the attachment to DRC-01 did not qualify as a SCN as it did not call upon the petitioner to show cause. Further, reliance was placed on Rule 26, which mandates authentication of notices and orders through digital or electronic signature. It was also argued that no opportunity of hearing was provided as required under Section 75(4), as the DRC-01 summary did not mention any date of hearing.
