Case Law Details
Ganit Shipping (OPC) Private Limited & Anr. Vs State of West Bengal & Ors. (Calcutta High Court)
The Calcutta High Court considered a writ petition challenging an order dated 6 March 2025 cancelling the petitioners’ GST registration under the WBGST/CGST Act, 2017. The petitioners submitted that they intended to continue their business and were willing to comply with the Act by paying the outstanding tax, interest, penalty and fine as applicable. The Court noted that the registration had been cancelled following a show cause notice solely on the ground of non-furnishing of returns under Section 39 of the Act and that it was not the respondents’ case that the petitioners had adopted any dubious process to evade tax. The Court observed that suspension or cancellation of registration would be counterproductive to revenue, as the petitioners would be unable to carry on business or raise invoices, thereby affecting tax recovery. Taking a pragmatic view, the Court set aside the cancellation order dated 6 March 2025 subject to the condition that the petitioners file returns for the entire period of default and pay the applicable tax, interest, penalty and fine. The Court directed the respondents to activate the petitioners’ portal and login credentials within one week to enable compliance. If the petitioners comply within four weeks from receipt of the server copy of the order, the jurisdictional officer shall restore the registration; otherwise, the benefit of the order will cease and the writ petition will stand automatically dismissed.
Present for the Petitioner: Mr. Himangshu Kumar Ray, Ms. Shiwani Shaw, Mr. Subhasis Podder, Mr. Animitra Roy, Mr. Rantu Bose
FULL TEXT OF THE JUDGMENT/ORDER OF CALCUTTA HIGH COURT
1. Affidavit of service filed in Court is taken on record.
2. Challenging the order of cancellation dated 6th March, 2025 passed under the provisions of WBGST/CGST Act, 2017 (hereinafter referred to as the “said Act”), the instant writ petition has been filed.
2. Today, Mr. Ray, learned advocate appearing in support of the writ petition would submit that the petitioners are interested to continue with the business and is agreeable to comply with the provisions of the said Act and to pay the outstanding tax, interest, penalty and fine as may be applicable.
3. Having heard the learned advocates appearing for the respective parties, it would transpire that pursuant to a show cause notice, the aforesaid order of cancellation of registration was issued on the ground of non-furnishing of returns under Section 39 of the said Act.
4. I find in this case that the registration of the petitioners had been cancelled on the ground of non-filing of returns. It is not the case of the respondents that the petitioners had been adopting dubious process to evade tax. Taking note of the fact that the suspension/revocation of registration would be counterproductive and works against the interest of the revenue since, the petitioners in such case would not be able to carry on his business in the sense that no invoice can be raised by the petitioners and ultimately would impact recovery of tax, I am of the view that the respondents should take a pragmatic view in the matter and permit the petitioners to carry on their business.
5. Having regard to the aforesaid, I propose to set aside the order of cancellation dated 6th March, 2025, subject to the condition that the petitioner filed his returns for the entire period of default and pays requisite amount of tax, interest, penalty and fine as may be applicable.
6. It is made clear that if the petitioner complies with the directions/conditions noted above within four weeks from date of receipt of the server copy of this order, the petitioner’s registration under the said Act shall be restored by the Jurisdictional Officer. However, if the petitioners fail to comply with the directions as aforesaid, the benefit of this order will not enure to the petitioners and the writ petition would stand automatically dismissed.
7. For the purpose of compliance of the above directions, the respondents are directed to activate the petitioners’ portal and login credentials within one week from date so that the petitioners can files their returns, pays requisite amount of tax, interest, fine and penalty.
8. With the above observations and directions, the writ petition is disposed of.
9. Parties shall act on the basis of the server copy of this order duly downloaded from the official website of this Hon’ble Court.
Urgent Photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be made available to the parties upon compliance of requisite formalities.
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