Assessee was registered under GST Act, had its original GSTIN cancelled in September 2018 and was later assigned a new GSTIN in September 2019. Assessee had filed its monthly returns in GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B through the common portal.
Assessment and penalty orders issued against assessee was set aside considering pathology reports of assessee as a valid reason for failing to respond to various income tax notices.
CIT (Appeals) held that assessee qualified as an ‘intermediary,’ making the services rendered ineligible for classification as ‘Export of Services’ under the Service Tax Rules, 1994.
The court held that the other three companies were also carrying out large-scale projects compared to assessee, making them unsuitable for comparison or setting industry standards.
AO had made the addition with the observation that no response was received from assessee. Based on that, he proceeded to complete the assessment u/s 144 based on the information available on his record.
Assessee had filed his income tax return for A.Y. 2017-18 declaring ₹20,89,430. The case was scrutinized for capital gains from agricultural land sales and cash deposits during demonetization.
The impugned order was challenged on the premise that neither the show cause notices nor the impugned order of assessment had been served by tendering to assessee or by registered post, instead it was uploaded in the common portal.
It was held that writ courts did not interfere in cases where statutory remedies were available unless there was a clear violation of fundamental rights, lack of jurisdiction, or procedural perversity leading to manifest injustice.
The impugned order was issued thereafter on 29.04.2024. Assessee referred to the impugned order and pointed out that the reply was not considered by the proper officer because such reply was filed after four opportunities of personal hearing.
Although Rule 128(9) requires Form 67, assessee’s compliance within this rule during the rectification stage demonstrated a good faith or effort to fulfil procedural requirement.
