Case Law Details
Kuntal A Parikh Vs Mr. Utkarsh Sharma (Gujarat High Court)
Assistant Government Pleader for the respondents, supported the impugned order by submitting that admittedly the goods were not accompanied by Part-B of the E-way bills and hence, the second respondent was wholly justified in detaining the conveyance and goods. It was further submitted that as there was a contravention of the provisions of the GST Act and the rules made thereunder, inasmuch as the goods were being transported without Part B of the E-way bills, the second respondent was wholly justified in imposing tax and penalty thereon. It was urged that the petition being devoid of merit, deserves to be dismissed.
This court has considered the submissions advanced by the learned advocates for the respective parties and has perused the record of the case as available before this court.
For the reasons that follow, this court does not intend to enter into the merits of the submissions advanced by the learned advocate for the petitioners as regards the liability or otherwise to pay tax and penalty and the quantum of tax payable by the petitioners. A perusal of the impugned order dated 2.4.2019 passed by the second respondent in FORM GST MOV-09 whereby tax and penalty have been demanded, reveals that the basis for computing the additional tax is the IGST paid by the petitioners. Moreover, in the impugned order there is not even a whisper as regards the submissions advanced on behalf of the petitioners, nor have the same been dealt with in the body of the order. No reasons have been assigned by the second respondent for the purpose of holding the petitioner liable to payment of tax and penalty despite the fact that IGST had already been paid on such transaction and the goods were being moved from the customs warehouse to the petitioner’s own godown and it being the case of the petitioners that there was no supply, and hence, the provisions of GST Act are not applicable. The impugned order is, therefore, totally bereft of any reasoning. Reasons, it is well known, are the heart and soul of an order passed by a judicial/quasi-judicial order, without which it is difficult to pronounce one way or other as regards the validity of such order. In the absence of any reasons to support the findings given by a judicial/quasi judicial authority, it is not possible to ascertain as to how the authority came to a particular conclusion. Under the circumstances, in the absence of any reasons in support of the tax and penalty levied by the second respondent, the impugned order stands vitiated as being an unreasoned order and as such cannot be sustained. However, the matter is required to be restored to the file of the second respondent for deciding the same afresh in accordance with law by passing a speaking order after duly considering the submissions advanced by the petitioners.
FULL TEXT OF THE HIGH COURT ORDER / JUDGEMENT
Please become a Premium member. If you are already a Premium member, login here to access the full content.
