Agmotex Fabrics Private Limited Vs State of Uttar Pradesh And Others (Allahabad High Court)
Allahabad High Court held that non-production of documents which were relied upon by the department amounts to violation of principles of natural justice. Accordingly, impugned order liable to be quashed.
Facts- On December 27, 2022, petitioner’s Business premises were subjected to a search where it was found that the petitioner had wrongly availed the Input Tax Credit and refund of the same on purchase of glycerin, fatty acid and finishing chemical made up of perfumery compound. It was further found that the petitioner had also not produced proper evidence with regard to cancelling 115 e-way bills by it during the financial year 2021-22. Subsequently, a show cause notice dated March 20, 2024 was issued to the petitioner by the Deputy Commissioner, State Goods and Services Tax asking it to refund the excess utilization of ITC along with penalty amounting to Rs. 2,24,24,710/- by April 19, 2024.
On June 4, 2024, another show cause notice u/s. 74 of the Act was issued to the petitioner by which the amount of Tax and penalty was revised to Rs. 2,43,74,686/-. In spite of the reply dated July 2, 2024 having been uploaded by the petitioner on the portal, the respondent no. 3 gave a reminder dated August 8, 2024 to the petitioner and asked it to appear for personal hearing and submit its reply by September 6, 2024. The petitioner vide its letter dated August 10, 2024, informed the respondent no. 3 that it has already given a detailed reply dated July 2, 2024 in response to the show cause notice.
