Lord Vishnu Construction Pvt. Ltd. Vs Union of India through the Secretary (Patna High Court)
The Patna High Court considered a writ petition filed by the petitioner challenging an order dated 31.10.2023 passed under Section 73(9) of the GST Act, 2017 and the consequential demand in Form DRC-07 for Financial Year 2017-18. The petitioner sought directions to entertain its revision application filed under Section 108 of the GST Act through email owing to the inability to upload it on the GST portal, to restrain coercive recovery during the pendency of the revision, and to quash the assessment order and demand on the ground of violation of the principles of natural justice.
The petitioner submitted that it had filed its annual return in Form GSTR-9 and reconciliation statement in Form GSTR-9C, disclosing turnover for the period April 2017 to June 2017 as turnover governed by the Bihar VAT Act, 2005. It contended that it had not concealed any turnover and came to know of the assessment order under Section 73(9) only in the first week of March 2024. According to the petitioner, although a show cause notice dated 27.09.2023 had been issued, it could not respond because the notice had not been uploaded under the “Notices and Orders” tab of the GST portal but under the “Additional Notices and Orders” tab. The petitioner produced screenshots of the GST portal to substantiate this contention and argued that the assessment order and demand were passed in violation of the principles of natural justice.
