The Jharkhand High Court has imposed the cost of Rs. 25,000 on the GST department to be paid to assessee for the non-compliance with Sections 107(8) and 107(12) Of GST Act.
The bench of Chief Justice M.S. Ramachandra Rao and Justice Gautam Kumar Choudhary has observed that under Section 107(8) of the GST Act, it is the duty of the Appellate Authority to give an opportunity to the appellant of being heard. There is no evidence that such an opportunity of hearing was provided to the appellant by the Joint Commissioner.
The bench further noted that under Section 107(12) of the GST Act, the order of the Appellate Authority disposing of the appeal shall be in writing and shall state the points for determination, the decision and the reasons for the decision. All these requirements were missing.
For the financial year 2018-19, the department passed an order that the petitioner has availed excess amount of Input Tax Credit in GSTR-3B than the amount of Input Tax Credit available as per GSTR-2A for the tax period and the extent of Input Tax Credit available is Rs. 25,53,145.55.
The petitioner/assessee submitted that it had filed appropriate returns and availed appropriate Input Tax Credit by filing GSTR-3B on the basis of invoices and records, and that the order dt. 15.12.2020 was passed by the department without issuing any notice to the petitioner and without any information demanding Rs.25,53,145.55 including interest and penalty on the only ground that there was a difference in GSTR-3B and Auto Populated GSTR-2A.
The petitioner contended that the Appellate Authority also did not give any opportunity of hearing to the petitioner and even without seeking any document from the petitioner, passed the order on 28.02.2022 rejecting the petitioner’s appeal by giving the only reason “no valid/lawful document or submission submitted”.
The department contended that there was no submission by the petitioner during the adjudication or appeal proceedings which indicated that the petitioner was in possession of documents required for claiming Input Tax Credit and that the petitioner has actually discharged his statutory obligation including payment of tax to his supplier based on which he has claimed the Input Tax Credit.
The court held that since the order passed by the Appellate Authority is in blatant violation of the above provisions of the Jharkhand Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, on account of non-compliance with Sections 107(8) and 107(12), the order as well as the order of the Primary Authority are both set aside; the matter is remitted to the Primary Authority to issue notice of hearing to the petitioner, consider the documents, such as, ASMT-11 filed online by the petitioner to ASMT-10 notice and then pass a reasoned order in accordance with law.
The court, while allowing the petition, permitted the petitioner to file documents as well as any case law which he chooses to rely on before the Primary Authority. The department shall also pay a cost of Rs.25,000/- to the petitioner within four weeks.
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Case Details
Case Title: Mukesh Kumar Singh Versus The Commissioner
Case No.: W.P. (T) No. 3141 of 2024
Date: 24/01/2025
Counsel For Petitioner: Deepak Kumar Sinha
Counsel For Respondent: Ashok Kumar Yadav
