Sri. Kolapudi Enoch Washington Proprietor of M/s INXL Digital Vs. Additional Commissioner (GST And Central Tax) (Karnataka High Court)
Cancelled GST Registration as a result of Non Filing of GST Returns due to sudden demise of Auditor to be Restored
The Hon’ble Karnataka High Court in the case of Sri Kolapudi Enoch Washington v. The Additional Commissioner (GST and Central Tax), [Writ Petition No. 21269/2022 (T-RES)] directed the Goods and Services Tax (“GST”) Department to restore the cancelled GST registration as the Petitioner could not file the GST returns due to sudden demise of the auditor.
Facts:
M/s Kolapudi Enoch Washington (“the Petitioner”), contended that because of the untimely and sudden death of his auditor, GST return could not be filed on time and because of said delay the Respondents issued the Petitioner a show cause notice (“SCN”) dated February 24, 2022. The Petitioner did not receive the SCN because spam filtering setting in the Petitioner’s email account. As a result, the Petitioner was unaware of the SCN and did not respond, which led to cancelling of GST registration by the Respondent x. the Petitioner filed appeal before Additional Commissioner (“the Appellate Authority“) under Section 107 of Central Goods and Services Act, 2017 (“the CGST Act”). However, the appeal was dismissed on the ground of the delay which cannot be condoned as the Appellate Authority lacks jurisdiction for the same. Therefore, the thee Petitioner filed present writ petition seeking condonation of delay under Article 226 of the Constitution and setting aside the Orders passed against the Petitioner.
Issue:
Whether GST Registration can be cancelled due to non-filing of returns as a result of sudden demise of auditor be restored?
Held:
The High Court held as under:
