Sheetal Dilip Jain Vs State of Maharashtra & Ors. (Bombay High Court)
Bombay High Court held that minimum 30 days time should be granted to file reply in all cases of issuance of SCN under Section 73 of the Maharashtra Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. It will equally apply to Section 73 and 74 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.
HC held that Sections 73(8) of MGST Act in terms permits a person chargeable with tax under subsection (1) or sub-section (3) a period of 30 days from issuance of the show-cause notice to make payment of such tax along with interest payable under Section 50. If he does not wish to make payment, then within the 30 day period he could file a reply to the show-cause notice. This statutory period cannot be arbitrarily reduced to 7 days by assessing officer.
HC impose cost on GST Officer for passing patently illegal orders
The officers do not seem to understand or appreciate the hardship that is caused to the general public. In this case, Petitioner could afford (we have assumed) to spend on a lawyer and approach this Court but for every Petitioner, we would hazard a guess, atleast ten would not be able to afford a lawyer and approach the Court and their registrations may get cancelled by the very same officers who have passed such patently illegal orders.
In this case, in our view, it will only be fit and proper that Respondents are saddled with costs. Respondents shall pay a sum of 10,000/- as donation to PM Cares Fund and this amount shall be paid within two weeks from the date this order is uploaded.
