Gopi Chand Vs Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxes (Karnataka High Court)
Karnataka High Court has ruled against the practice of clubbing multiple financial years in a single Goods and Services Tax (GST) notice and order, in the case of Gopi Chand Vs Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxes. The court addressed a petition challenging an order issued under Section 73 of the Karnataka Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (KGST Act), which amalgamated the financial years 2019-20 to 2023-24.
The petitioner argued that issuing a common show-cause notice and subsequent order for multiple financial years violates the provisions of the KGST Act. They cited Section 73 of the Act, which prescribes a specific time limit for actions related to each financial year, calculated from the due date for furnishing the annual return. The petitioner’s counsel referred to a precedent set in W.P.No.15810/2024, where a coordinate bench of the same court had previously ruled that such clubbing of financial years is impermissible under Section 73.
The court, after hearing arguments from both sides, acknowledged that the impugned order, Annexure-C, indeed clubbed financial years 2019-20 to 2023-24 in a single proceeding. The court emphasized that Section 73 of the KGST Act mandates specific actions within the relevant financial year due to prescribed limitations. Consequently, consolidating multiple assessment years into a single notice and order was deemed contrary to the statutory provisions.
