The Bombay High Court, Goa Bench has held that the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) cannot issue consolidated show cause notices (SCNs) for multiple assessment years (AYs).
The bench of Justice Bharati Dangre and Justice Ashish S. Chavan quashed the action of DGGI in issuing consolidated show cause notices for multiple assessment years without jurisdiction and it is a judicial overreach.
The 2 Writ Petitions were filed raising the issue whether it is permissible to initiate proceedings under the Central Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017 (CGST Act, 2017) against the Assessee by clubbing or bunching of different financial years, as it is urged that under the Scheme of the CGST Act, 2017 which provides for levy and collection of tax on intra State supply of Goods and Services by the Central Government, the Tax period commensurate the period of Return, which necessarily is dependent on the financial year.
The Petitioner that being engaged in the construction of residential and commercial complexes, it is registered with the GST Department and has undertaken development of two projects, namely, Colina and Adarsh and in the former, the landowners intended to construct new structures by utilizing Floor Space Index (FSI) and the TDR FSI relating to and arising out of the plot whereas in case of Adarsh Project, the Society desired to redevelop the dilapidated buildings, as it was incurring huge costs for repairs and maintenance and it was resolved to demolish the old structure and construct a new one by utilising the plot FSI and the TDR FSI relating to and arising out of the plot.
The Petitioner being appointed as a ‘Developer” to carry out the re-development, entered into appropriate agreement for giving effect to the Project and as per the Agreement, the landowner of the Society agreed to hand over the existing land to it as Developer and the Developer undertook to construct new buildings and hand over the same to the members of the Society and the Petitioner was permitted to use the FSI for the construction of the sale component.
Based on the intelligence collected by the Department that the Petitioner is engaged in supply of construction service but has failed to pay GST on the construction services, certain data/documents were collected and summons were issued to the Petitioner under Section 17 of the CGST Act.
The Court found that there is no legal provision allowing tax authorities to combine several tax periods into one notice. The notices were also issued beyond the limitation period. Therefore, the action of the tax department (Respondent No. 2) in issuing a consolidated show cause notice for multiple years is without legal authority and amounts to judicial overreach.
As a result, the Court quashes and cancels those notices. The writ petition is allowed on these grounds.
Case Details
Case Title: M/s. Milroc Good Earth Developers Versus Union of India
Case No.: Writ Petition No.2203 Of 2025 (Filing)
Date: 09/10/2025
Counsel For Petitioner: Bharat Raichandani, Advocate
Counsel For Respondent: Asha Desai, Standing Counsel
