Jalpaiguri Woodcraft & Anr. Vs State of West Bengal & Ors. (Calcutta High Court)
In Jalpaiguri Woodcraft & Anr. vs State of West Bengal & Ors., the Calcutta High Court considered a writ petition challenging a show cause notice issued under Section 74(1) of the CGST/WBGST Act, 2017. The notice arose from search and seizure proceedings conducted under Section 67 of the Act.
The petitioners argued that although Section 67(5) entitles them to obtain copies or extracts of seized documents, they were only provided with a seizure memo and not the underlying records. Since the show cause notice relied on such seized materials, the petitioners contended that they were entitled to access these documents, particularly given that the seizure took place on December 20, 2022.
The GST authorities opposed the petition, stating that the petitioners had failed to cooperate with the proceedings despite repeated summons. It was argued that the lack of document access was attributable to the petitioners’ own conduct.
The Court noted that the show cause notice had been issued nearly three years after the search and seizure and relied on the seized documents to establish the case. In such circumstances, the Court held that the petitioners are entitled to inspection and/or extracts of all records relied upon by the authorities. It further clarified that if specific records—particularly accounting data such as Excel or Tally files from the petitioners’ computer—are relied upon, copies of those must be provided.
