The Supreme Court has dismissed a batch of special leave petitions challenging the Delhi High Court’s refusal to entertain writ petitions against GST adjudication orders arising from a common anti-evasion investigation. 

The bench of  Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Vipul M. Pancholi has observed that the petitioners’ grievances concerning personal hearings, electronic evidence, handwritten slips and alleged procedural violations could be examined through statutory appeals under Section 107 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.

“We find no grounds to interfere with the impugned judgment(s) and order(s) of the High Court,” the Supreme Court stated while dismissing the special leave petitions. Pending applications were also disposed of. 

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The Supreme Court’s brief order does not separately examine the disputed evidence or the correctness of the GST demands. The High Court’s decision directing the petitioners towards the statutory appellate mechanism consequently remains undisturbed.

Investigation Into Alleged Unaccounted Electronic Goods Transactions

The dispute originated from an investigation by the Anti-Evasion Branch of the CGST Delhi North Commissionerate.

According to the background of the proceedings, the Department received intelligence alleging that the concern was trading electronic goods without issuing proper tax invoices or paying applicable GST. Search proceedings were conducted at its residential and business premises on October 22, 2024.

During the search, officers allegedly recovered a Dell laptop, handwritten “kachcha parchis” and other documents. The Department claimed that data extracted from the laptop, read with the handwritten slips, revealed substantial unaccounted transactions involving several entities.

The investigation was subsequently extended to entities alleged to have purchased electronic goods from the concern. A demand-cum-show cause notice dated June 25, 2025, was issued under Section 74 of the CGST Act against Arora Communication and several other noticees, including the petitioners.

An earlier show cause notice dated April 17, 2025, issued against the concern and its proprietor, culminated in an adjudication order dated December 9, 2025. Most of the writ petitions challenged the Order-in-Original dated December 26, 2025, passed pursuant to the subsequent notice.

The petitioners disputed the foundation of the demands, arguing that the proceedings substantially relied on electronic records and handwritten slips recovered from a third party.

They alleged that the Department had not independently established their connection with the disputed transactions through invoices, transport documents, stock records, financial records or other contemporaneous material.

Their case was that unverified entries recovered from Arora Communication could not, without adequate corroboration, establish clandestine receipt or supply of goods or tax evasion by the other noticees.

The petitioners also questioned the authentication of the electronic material and invoked the certificate requirements contemplated under Section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023.

A substantial part of the challenge concerned alleged violations of natural justice.

The petitioners contended that their replies and supporting documents had not been adequately considered and that the adjudicating authorities had mechanically confirmed the proposed demands.

Invoking Section 75(4) of the CGST Act, they alleged that effective personal hearings had not been provided in several cases. Some claimed that hearing notices were not served, while others alleged that technical difficulties on the Department’s side prevented meaningful participation in virtual hearings. Requests for physical hearings were also allegedly not accepted.

Further objections concerned the non-supply of complete relied-upon documents and the denial of cross-examination of persons whose statements formed part of the Department’s case.

Some petitioners additionally alleged that money had been obtained under coercion during searches and subsequently recorded as voluntary payments through Form DRC-03.

The Department opposed the maintainability of the writ petitions on the ground that the adjudication orders were appealable under Section 107 of the CGST Act.

It maintained that show cause notices had been served, opportunities to reply and participate in adjudication had been provided, and the orders were based on the material available on record.

According to the Revenue, the petitioners were seeking a reassessment of factual findings and evidence, which fell within the statutory appellate authority’s jurisdiction.

The Department also pointed out that the petitioner in W.P.(C) 2179/2026 had already filed an appeal against the December 26, 2025, order. It opposed the simultaneous pursuit of the same grievance before the appellate authority and the High Court in the absence of exceptional circumstances.

The Delhi High Court bench of Justice Anil Khetarpal and Justice Shail Jain examined whether the petitioners had established grounds for invoking Article 226 despite the availability of a statutory appeal.

The High Court recognised that an alternative remedy does not completely exclude writ jurisdiction. Referring to Assistant Commissioner of State Tax and Others v. Commercial Steel Limited, it considered the recognised exceptions involving fundamental rights, natural justice, excess of jurisdiction and challenges to the validity of legislation.

However, the Court emphasised that merely invoking one of these grounds does not automatically permit a litigant to bypass the appellate mechanism. The circumstances of the case must actually warrant the exercise of extraordinary jurisdiction.

The High Court concluded that the grievances raised in the batch required examination of individual adjudication records and appreciation of disputed evidence.

Although the petitions arose from a common investigation, the High Court found that the alleged procedural violations were not identical across the batch.

In some cases, replies had been filed and considered and hearing opportunities had been provided. In others, noticees had not filed replies or appeared despite opportunities.

Whether a particular petitioner received adequate notice, participated in the proceedings, encountered technical difficulties or suffered prejudice therefore required examination of that petitioner’s record.

The Court also held that allegations concerning inadequate consideration of replies, insufficient reasoning or unsustainable conclusions ordinarily concerned the correctness of adjudication. These questions could be examined in statutory appeals.

The High Court declined to determine the admissibility, authenticity or evidentiary value of the electronic data and handwritten slips at the writ stage.

Questions concerning compliance with Section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, authentication of the extracted data and the sufficiency of corroborating material required examination of the original investigation and adjudication records.

The Court similarly left open whether material recovered from a third party sufficiently connected each petitioner with the alleged transactions. The absence of a search at a particular petitioner’s premises did not, by itself, establish a patent lack of jurisdiction.

Crucially, the High Court did not endorse the Department’s evidence or rule that the disputed material conclusively established tax evasion. Those questions remained available for independent determination by the appellate authority.

The High Court acknowledged that document supply and cross-examination concerned the fairness of adjudication. However, determining which documents were necessary, how statements had been used and whether denial of cross-examination caused prejudice required scrutiny of the underlying records.

The allegation of coercive collection of amounts through DRC-03 was likewise treated as a disputed factual issue. Assessing voluntariness, the circumstances of payment and its legal consequences required examination of contemporaneous material.

On the facts presented, these allegations did not persuade the Court to bypass the remedy under Section 107.

While dismissing the writ petitions, the High Court left the petitioners free to pursue statutory appeals. It also dismissed the petition seeking interim protection against further proceedings.

The High Court provided a limitation-related safeguard by allowing petitioners filing appeals to seek exclusion of the period during which their writ petitions remained pending.

The appellate authority was directed to consider limitation issues, including requests to exclude time spent prosecuting the writ proceedings, in accordance with law and without being influenced by the judgment’s observations. This was an opportunity to seek exclusion, rather than an automatic extension of the appeal deadline.

With the Supreme Court declining to interfere, the High Court’s disposal remains in place. The disputed GST demands, procedural objections and evidentiary questions remain matters for examination through the statutory appellate process.

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