Sampoornam Vs Assistant Commissioner (ST) (FAC)/Commercial Tax Officer (Madras High Court)
The Madras High Court heard these writ petitions along with a batch of 250 writ petitions and treated them as part of the larger challenge relating to proceedings initiated under Section 74 of the respective GST enactments. The petitioner challenged assessment orders in Form GST DRC-07 passed under Section 74 for Assessment Years 2017-18 and 2019-20.
The records showed that the assessee had died on 01.05.2020. Thereafter, returns were scrutinised, intimations in Form GST DRC-01A and show cause notices in Form GST DRC-01 were issued in the name of the deceased assessee, followed by the impugned assessment orders. For Assessment Year 2017-18, the assessment order was based on a mismatch between the Input Tax Credit reflected in GSTR-2A and GSTR-3B. For Assessment Year 2019-20, the assessment order related to levy of late fee under Section 47 for belated filing of annual returns in Form GSTR-9 under Section 44.
The petitioner submitted that the assessee had died on 01.05.2020. Regarding Assessment Year 2017-18, it was argued that the limitation for passing an order under Section 73 had expired and that the show cause notice issued under Section 74 did not specify the ingredients required for invoking Section 74, rendering both the show cause notice and the assessment order liable to be set aside. It was further submitted that the assessment order had been passed in contravention of Section 75. Regarding Assessment Year 2019-20, the petitioner contended that although the due date for filing GSTR-9 had been extended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, neither the intimation in Form GST DRC-01A nor the show cause notice invoked the ingredients necessary for proceedings under Section 74. It was also argued that the assessment order was passed beyond the limitation prescribed under Section 73.
