The Bombay High Court quashed the GST show cause notice in the interest of justice as the department failed to show the proof of service of notice at the correct address of the petitioner and remanded the matter back to the file of the department for adjudication of the show cause notice.
The bench of Justice M. S. Sonak and Justice Jitendra Jain directed the GST department to serve further notices and correspondence to the petitioner on the address at “M/s. Champion Steel Industries (P) Ltd., A/3, Ahmedabad Street, Carnac Bunder, Mumbai – 400 009” and at the email address registered with the department.
The petitioner/assessee has challenged the show cause notice culminating into Order primarily on the ground of principles of natural justice.
The petitioner submitted that the show cause notices and order have been served on an address which does not belong to the petitioner and, therefore on this ground itself, the order passed on the basis of such notice which was not served is bad in law.
The department submitted they have issued the notices at the address mentioned in the show cause notice and order and same were not returned and, therefore, it should be presumed that the notice has been served on the petitioner and, therefore, there is no violation of principles of natural justice.
The court noted that the address records a wrong pin code number and wrong road and area. Then how this notice can be said to have been served on the petitioner whose office is at the address of “A/3, Ahmedabad Street, Carnac Bunder, Mumbai – 400 009” and not at Pydhonie. The department failed to shown any document to indicate that the Pydhonie address is that of the petitioner.
Case Details
Case Title: Champions Steel Industries Private Limited Versus Union of India: Bombay High Court
Case No.: Writ Petition (L) No.35234 Of 2023
Date: 16 December 2024
Counsel For Petitioner: Mr. Prasanna Namboodiri a/w Ms. Pratibha Namboodiri, Ms. Tejal S. Darekar, Ms. Pallavi Dabak and Mr. Rishabh Jain
Counsel For Respondent: Mr. Yogendra R. Mishra a/w Ms. Sangeeta Yadav
