Shashi Kant Jaiswal & Anr. Vs Assistant Commissioner of State Tax (Calcutta High Court)
The Calcutta High Court has granted relief to two petitioners, Shashi Kant Jaiswal & Anr., by quashing an order that attached their bank account and providing them an opportunity to contest a tax demand. The court’s decision, issued on an unspecified date, addresses a procedural issue on the GST portal that allegedly led to the petitioners’ unawareness of the tax proceedings against them. The ruling provides a pathway for the petitioners to have their case heard on its merits while offering a pragmatic solution to a dispute over proper notice.
The case originated from an order passed on February 4, 2025, under Section 73 of the WBGST/CGST Act, 2017, which determined a tax demand for the period of April 2020 to March 2021. This was followed by a more severe measure on June 11, 2025, when a notice under Section 79(1)(c) was issued, leading to the attachment of the petitioners’ bank account with the Central Bank of India.
The core of the petitioners’ challenge lay in the manner in which the tax authorities communicated the initial show cause notice and the subsequent final order. The petitioners contended that they had no knowledge of these proceedings because all the relevant documents were uploaded to an unconventional location on the GST portal. They alleged that the notices were placed under the “view additional notices and orders” tab, rather than the standard and more frequently checked “view notices and orders” section. This deviation from the “general practice,” as the petitioners’ counsel argued, prevented them from being aware of the show cause notice and, consequently, from responding to it in a timely manner. The petitioners claimed they only became aware of the tax demand after a sum of Rs. 75,354 was debited from their electronic credit ledger. Before they could take any action, the bank attachment notice was issued, prompting them to file the writ petition.
