Hitachi Systems India Pvt Ltd Vs Union of India & Ors. (Delhi High Court)
The Delhi High Court considered a writ petition challenging a show cause notice dated 28 September 2023 and a consequential adjudication order dated 24 December 2023 passed by the Sales Tax Officer under the GST law for the tax period July 2017 to March 2018. The petition also included a challenge to the validity of certain Central and State GST notifications extending limitation periods.
The petitioner contended that both the show cause notice and the adjudication order were uploaded only under the “Additional Notices Tab” on the GST portal and were never brought to its knowledge. As a result, no reply was filed to the show cause notice and the adjudication order was passed ex parte without affording an opportunity of hearing.
The Court noted that similar challenges to the impugned notifications were pending before multiple High Courts and that there was a divergence of views. The issue regarding the validity of the notifications was already pending consideration before the Supreme Court. The Delhi High Court had, in a batch of matters, adopted an approach of remanding cases or permitting statutory remedies without conclusively deciding the vires of the notifications, subject to the outcome before the Supreme Court.
