Parvinder Singh Vs State of Bihar (Patna High Court)
The case of Parvinder Singh vs. State of Bihar at the Patna High Court addresses the issue of a show-cause notice issued under Section 74 of the GST Act, despite the petitioner having already filed their tax return. The petitioner, Parvinder Singh, a contractor, had been regularly filing his GST returns. The dispute arose when the GST authorities alleged that he had not disclosed supplies made to the Local Area Engineering Organisation, Katihar, during a specific period. Based on this, a show-cause notice in Form DRC-01 was issued under Section 74 of the Central Goods and Services Tax/Bihar Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.
The petitioner argued that he had, in fact, filed the GST return for the period in question on December 7, 2020. However, the show-cause notice was issued on December 10, 2020, just three days later. The petitioner claimed the notice was uploaded to the GST portal under “Additional Notices” and not served via email or SMS, which is why he was unaware of it and failed to respond. He further contended that the authorities could have easily verified his return filing status on the common portal.
Conversely, the state defended the GST department’s actions. The state’s counsel acknowledged that the petitioner had filed the return, but argued that he had failed to inform the adjudicating authority of this filing via Form DRC-01B, as required. The state’s counter-affidavit stated that had the petitioner intimated the department of the return filing, no further proceedings under Section 73 and 74 would have been initiated. The department also noted that the petitioner had not paid the interest due on a delayed tax payment.
