Manikanta Enterprises Vs Deputy State Tax Officer (Telangana High Court)
The Telangana High Court addressed a Writ Petition filed by Manikanta Enterprises challenging the Show Cause Notice (SCN) for cancellation of its GST registration, the subsequent cancellation order, and the rejection of its revocation application. The petitioner contested the SCN dated March 17, 2025, the registration cancellation order dated March 28, 2025, and the rejection of the revocation application dated June 11, 2025.
The core issue was that the SCN for cancellation of registration dated March 17, 2025, was found to lack the essential ingredients of a proper show cause notice as required under Rule 22(1) of the Telangana State Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017, read with Section 29 of the Act. Specifically, the SCN did not contain any date or time for the petitioner’s appearance to present a defense against the proposed cancellation. The SCN itself indicated “undefined” for the date and time of appearance. The SCN followed a panchanama report on the petitioner’s premises conducted on March 15, 2025. The cancellation order on March 28, 2025, was based on the ground that the petitioner did not conduct business from the declared place.
The petitioner argued that the failure to specify the date and time in Form GST REG-17 was a serious violation of the procedure prescribed under Rule 22(1) and principles of natural justice, causing prejudice. The counsel for the State Tax did not dispute that the SCN lacked a date and time for the petitioner to appear.
