Crystal Granites Vs Assistant Commissioner (ST) (Madras High Court)
Crystal Granites filed a writ petition before the Madras High Court challenging an order dated 05.01.2024 issued by the Assistant Commissioner (ST) under Section 74 of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) enactments. The crux of the challenge was the alleged violation of principles of natural justice in the conduct of proceedings leading to the issuance of the impugned order.
The petitioner contended that they were not adequately informed about the show cause notice and subsequent proceedings. They argued that the notice and order were solely uploaded on the GST portal under the “view additional notices and order” tab, without any additional communication via other means. This, according to the petitioner, deprived them of a reasonable opportunity to respond and participate effectively in the adjudication process.
In response, the learned counsel for Crystal Granites submitted that the proceedings were also flawed because they did not satisfy the conditions stipulated under Section 74 of the GST enactments. Specifically, they asserted that the tax demand in question arose from discrepancies between the petitioner’s GSTR 3B returns and the auto-populated GSTR 2A, and contended that these discrepancies did not warrant the issuance of the impugned order.
