Narayana Rama Bhat Vs Deputy Commissioner of State Tax (Intelligence) (Kerala High Court)
The Kerala High Court addressed a writ petition filed by Narayana Rama Bhat seeking a directive for the Deputy Commissioner of State Tax (Intelligence) to issue separate orders for each financial year, pursu-ant to a show-cause notice (Ext.P1) issued under Section 74(1) of the CGST Act, 2017. The petitioner also sought sufficient time to respond to the show-cause notice for the financial years 2022-2023 and 2023-2024, along with an opportunity for a personal hearing. The show-cause notice pertained to mul-tiple financial years, and earlier, the High Court had directed the proceedings for the assessment year 2017-2018 to continue, while those for the remaining years were stayed pending further orders. The petitioner’s counsel submitted that the proceedings for 2017-2018 had concluded, and the remaining years were still under consideration.
The High Court firmly stated that a consolidated order encompassing several financial years is not legally sound. It cited a Division Bench decision of the Kerala High Court in Joint Commissioner (Intelligence and Enforcement) v. M/s. Lakshmi Mobile Accessories, which held that separate determination orders are necessary even under the CGST Act. As the proceedings for the financial years 2018-2019 to 2021-2022 had already seen a reply filed by the petitioner, the court directed the second respondent to pass appropriate orders separately for each of these years, in accordance with the law. Regarding the financial years 2022-2023 and 2023-2024, for which the petitioner had not yet submitted a reply, the High Court granted the petitioner one month from the date of the order to file their response to the show-cause notice. Following this, the second respondent was instructed to issue separate orders for these years as well. The court explicitly directed that all orders for each financial year must be passed after granting the petitioner an opportunity for a personal hearing. The writ petition was disposed of with these directions.
