Case Law Details
Ansari Construction Vs Additional Commissioner Central Goods And Services Tax (Allahabad High Court)
In the present case along with the application, the petitioner had filed a statement to the effect that all the requisite returns have been filed and the dues are cleared and thus it was incumbent upon the Department to have verified the correctness of averments made in the application. I am sorry to observe that the Department miserably failed to verify the facts from their own records and proceeded to issue a show cause notice which is contained in Annexure 4 to the writ petition and quoted herein above. The manner in which the show cause notice has been issued is wholly unacceptable as it does not record any shortcoming on the part of the assessee. It is not conceivable as to what was required in the show cause notice.
A perusal of the said show cause notice clearly highlights the fact that serious quasi-adjudicatory functionaries are being discharged by persons who do not have a legally trained mind and are entrusted in discharging functions affecting huge revenues. The order dated 30.1.2020 passed by the Assistant Commissioner rejecting the application of the petitioner is wholly arbitrary and demonstrates the lack of legally trained mind as there appears to be no effort to verify the correctness of the assertions made by the petitioner at the end of the Department.
I am sorry to record that the appellate authority has also committed the same manifest arbitrariness in deciding the appeal, the recording of the reason that facts cannot be verified at the appellate level is wholly arbitrary and militates against the whole purpose of statutory appeal under an enactment.
The Court cannot overlook the mutually contradictory stands taken by the Department before the Appellate Authority on one hand and the instructions given to this Court.
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