Shekhar Chandra Podder Vs Union of India (Tripura High Court)
Section 74 Proceedings Time-Barred; CGST Cannot Initiate Parallel Proceedings on Same ITC Dispute Already Taken Up by SGST: Tripura HC
The Tripura High Court considered a writ petition challenging certain Government notifications, a Demand-cum-Show Cause Notice dated 22.07.2024 issued under Section 74(1) of the CGST/TSGST Act by the Joint Commissioner, Central GST Commissionerate, Agartala, and the consequent Order-in-Original dated 03.02.2025. As no arguments were advanced regarding the notifications, the Court confined itself to examining the validity of the show cause notice and the Order-in-Original.
The impugned show cause notice covered four financial years—2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21. The petitioner contended that proceedings for FY 2017-18 were initiated beyond the five-year period prescribed under Section 74(10) of the CGST Act, reckoned from the due date for filing the annual return, and were therefore without jurisdiction. For FYs 2018-19 and 2019-20, the petitioner argued that SGST authorities had already issued show cause notices concerning excess Input Tax Credit (ITC), which proceedings were subsequently dropped on 08.07.2025. Since the CGST notice also covered excess ITC for the same years, it was contended that Section 6(2)(b) barred parallel proceedings on the same subject matter.
