Armita India Shipping Pvt Ltd Vs State of Maharashtra (Bombay High Court)
The Bombay High Court heard a writ petition filed by Armita India Shipping Pvt Ltd challenging an Order-in-Original dated April 20, 2024, arguing that the order was issued without granting the petitioner or its representatives a proper hearing. The respondents initially objected to the petition’s maintainability, citing the existence of an alternate statutory appeal remedy. The Revenue also argued that the petitioner’s representatives had attended hearings between April 20, 2023, and December 18, 2023.
The petitioner, however, clarified that these prior hearings occurred during the pre-Show Cause Notice (SCN) or audit stage. The court noted that the SCN, pursuant to which the impugned order was passed, was only issued on December 30, 2023. The court found that after the SCN was issued, there was no record contradicting the petitioner’s sworn statement that no subsequent hearing was given. Recognizing that a patent failure of natural justice is an exception to the rule requiring the exhaustion of alternate remedies, the High Court quashed and set aside the Order-in-Original dated April 20, 2024. The matter was remanded to the adjudicating authority to dispose of the SCN dated December 30, 2023, afresh, on its merits, within four months from the date of the order’s uploading. The petitioner committed not to raise the issue of limitation during the fresh adjudication.
