Sarens Heavy Lift India Private Limited Vs Assistant Commissioner DGST & Ors. (Delhi High Court)
The Delhi High Court addressed a writ petition filed by Pradeep Singh Rawat against the Assistant Commissioner, DGST & Ors., challenging a final order issued under Section 73(9) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. This order finalized a Show Cause Notice (SCN) dated May 30, 2024, which pertained to the tax period from April 2019 to March 2020. The petitioner had submitted a detailed reply to the SCN on June 12, 2024. However, the Assistant Commissioner, upon considering the reply, concluded that the taxpayer had failed to attend a personal hearing despite being given ample opportunity. Furthermore, the order stated that the reply filed by the taxpayer was “not comprehensible, conceivable, not perspicuous and is ambiguous,” leading to the confirmation of the proposed demand outlined in the SCN.
The Delhi High Court, drawing a parallel to a previously decided case, Xerox India Limited v Assistant Commissioner, noted the striking similarity in the language used by the same officer. In the Xerox India case, the court had observed that the Assistant Commissioner had adopted a template where the sole reason for rejecting the reply was that it was “not comprehensible, conceivable, not perspicuous and is ambiguous,” indicating a clear lack of independent application of mind. The court further pointed out that despite previous cautions against using such template language, the same pattern was repeated in the present case. Consequently, the Delhi High Court found itself unable to uphold the final order due to it being wholly unreasoned. The court allowed the writ petition, quashed the impugned order dated August 25, 2024, but granted the respondents the liberty to proceed further with the SCN proceedings, taking into consideration the reply already furnished by the petitioner. All rights and contentions of both parties on the merits of the case were explicitly kept open for any future proceedings.
