Ajijul Haque @ Hoque Vs State of West Bengal & Ors. (Calcutta High Court)
Summary: The Calcutta High Court considered a writ petition challenging cancellation of the petitioner’s GST registration under the West Bengal Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 for failure to furnish returns for a continuous period of six months. The petitioner was served with a show cause notice on 14th August, 2025 proposing cancellation of registration. The petitioner submitted that he had always been interested in complying with the statutory provisions by filing returns, but no reply to the show cause notice had been filed. He expressed readiness and willingness to comply with the statutory requirements. Reliance was placed on the Division Bench judgment in the Subhakar Golder versus Assistant Commissioner of State Tax, Serampore Charge (MAT 639 of 2024), decided on 9th April 2024, where a similar cancellation had been set aside subject to filing returns for the entire period of default and payment of the requisite tax, interest, fine and penalty.
The State contended that the petitioner had failed to comply with the statutory provisions and that the registration had consequently been cancelled after an opportunity to show cause was provided. The Court found that the registration had admittedly been cancelled for non-filing of returns and that the respondents did not allege that the petitioner had adopted any dubious process to evade tax. The Court observed that suspension or revocation of the registration would be counterproductive and against the interest of revenue because the petitioner would be unable to carry on business or raise invoices, ultimately affecting recovery of tax. The Court therefore considered it appropriate to take a pragmatic view and set aside the cancellation order dated 4th November, 2025, subject to filing returns for the entire period of default and payment of requisite tax, interest, fine and penalty. The registration was directed to be restored by the Jurisdictional Officer upon compliance within four weeks, failing which the writ petition would stand automatically dismissed.
