Case Law Details
Joyous Blocks & Panels Private Limited Vs Assistant Commissioner, Commercial Taxes (Calcutta High Court)
On going through the proceedings of the assessing officer dated 26th September, 2022 it prima facie appears to be an order and the manner of issuing show cause notice has not been rightly understood by the authority. Partly the appellants have to be blamed because the appellants for the query raised by the authority has misconstrued the scope of the query and proceeded to make elaborate factual submissions as well as relied upon several decisions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court and the High Courts. If the appellants had restricted their reply only to the extent query raised, this problem could have been averted. Thus, not only the authority committed a mistake in proceeding to reject all the contentions and then issued the show cause notice, equally the appellants also committed a mistake in mentioning facts which were not required to be done pursuant the query raised by the authority.
Thus we are of the view that the entire proceedings have to be redone in an opposite manner. We are conscious of the fact that if the matter is remanded back it will be dealt with by the very same officer but, however, we are confident that the very same officer will have an open mind and issue a show cause notice in a proper manner giving adequate opportunity to the appellants to submit their reply and it is thereafter the show cause notice has to be adjudicated. The manner in which the authority has proceeded to issue the notice dated 26th September, 2022 does not satisfy the legal requirements.
For the above reasons the appeal is allowed application and the order passed in the writ petition is set aside. Consequently the show cause notices impugned in the writ petitions are quashed and the matter is remanded back to the authority with a direction to issue a fresh show cause notice with an open mind without pre-deciding any issue and give adequate opportunity to the appellants to submit their reply and thereafter the case shall be adjudicated in accordance with law.
FULL TEXT OF THE JUDGMENT/ORDER OF CALCUTTA HIGH COURT
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