Sameera Hotels (Chennai) Private Limited Vs State Tax Officer (Inspection-I) (Madras High Court)
The Madras High Court disposed of a batch of writ petitions challenging orders passed under Section 74 of the respective GST enactments for Assessment Years 2018-19 to 2022-23. The petitions arose after a surprise inspection conducted on 09.05.2024, following which the petitioner received GST DRC-01A intimations identifying discrepancies. Show cause notices in GST DRC-01 dated 31.07.2024 proposed determination of tax under Section 74. The petitioner submitted replies, after which the impugned assessment orders were passed.
The petitioner contended that although Section 74 had been invoked, the show cause notices did not particularise the ingredients necessary for invoking the provision. It was further argued that the impugned orders merely referred to “willfulness” while sustaining the demand and were therefore liable to be quashed. The petitioner also raised a plea regarding limitation but fairly conceded that, for Assessment Years 2018-19 and 2019-20, the time limit for passing orders under Section 73 had not expired when the impugned orders were passed.
The State defended the proceedings, submitting that the orders were within limitation even if Section 73 were applicable. It was also argued that the petitioner had not raised any objection regarding the jurisdiction to invoke Section 74 in its replies to the show cause notices and had instead contested the matter only on merits. The respondents further contended that the writ petitions had been filed beyond the statutory period for filing an appeal under Section 107 of the GST enactments.
