Empire Steel Holdings Vs Union of India And Others (Madhya Pradesh High Court)
The Hon’ble Madhya Pradesh High Court in the case of Empire Steel Holdings v. Union of India [Writ Petition No. 31219 of 2024 dated April 24, 2025] held that the physical verification of business premises should be done in presence of person. In the instant case, no witness was present at time of inspection, visit note was only signed by Superintendent and not by any other witness. The Superintendent ought to have recorded statement of nearby shop owner and obtained their signature in visit notes as a witness. It appeared that no one was accompanied with him from GST Department at time of search, had any person visited with Superintendent, he would have countersigned the visit note. Such a visit note could not be relied on for taking such a drastic action of cancellation of license. On other hand, Joint commissioner also recorded that though business was non-operational at registered place of business, the Assessee was in existence and that no investigation was conducted to verify genuineness of transactions i.e. inward and outward supply before issuance of Show Cause Notice (“SCN”). The Commissioner had already examined Form GSTR-2A for Financial Year 2017-18 to Financial Year 2022-23 in detail and reproduced in order and held that supplier of Assessee was in existence and active which reflects genuineness of purchase.
