Vedant Road Carriers Pvt. Ltd. & Anr. Vs Assistant Commissioner of West Bengal State Tax (Calcutta High Court)
The Calcutta High Court examined the legality of a GST adjudication order dated May 17, 2023 passed under Section 73 of the WBGST/CGST Acts, 2017, and an appellate order dated April 25, 2025 passed under Section 107, both challenged in the present writ petition. The dispute arose from six show cause notices issued on March 15, 2023, alleging that the petitioner, a goods transport agency, had declared outward turnover in Form GSTR-3B for multiple financial years which was allegedly lower than the actual supplies, based on data available on the GST back-office portal.
The notices required replies and appearance on March 31, 2023. Given the volume of notices spanning several years, the petitioner sought time to file detailed replies and appeared through an authorised representative, but no extension was granted. Subsequently, the adjudicating authority passed an order on May 17, 2023 on a ground entirely different from the allegations in the notices. Instead of confining itself to alleged under-declaration of turnover, the adjudication order held that because the petitioner had once issued a tax invoice under the Forward Charge Mechanism on April 10, 2018, supplies made under the Reverse Charge Mechanism from April 10, 2018 to March 31, 2019 were liable to tax under the Forward Charge Mechanism at 12% (6% CGST + 6% SGST) in terms of Notification dated August 22, 2017.
