The Supreme Court has reserved judgement on the issue whether summons by the Central GST department can be issued even if the state GST department already passed an order?
The bench of Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice R. Mahadevan has presided over the Special Leave to Appeal filed by the Armour Security against the judgement passed by the Delhi High court in which it was held that there is no bar on issuing summons by CGST authority even if State GST authority has already passed order.
The bench directed the petitioner to file his written submissions along with the case laws he proposes to rely upon, by 17th March, 2025.
Background
The petitioner has challenged the summons which have been issued by the Central Goods and Services Tax department.
The petitioner highlighted the orders which had come to be framed by the State GST authorities as well as the pendency of proceedings emanating from a Show Cause Notice (SCN) dated 18 November 2024 which has been issued. Since the State GST authorities are in seisin of the proceedings and have also framed final orders referable to Section 73 of the Central Goods and Services Act, 2017, it would be wholly impermissible for the Central GST authorities to commence any proceedings.
The Delhi High court has held that Section 6(2)(b) seeks to injunct the initiation of proceedings by a Proper Officer where another officer acting under the State GST or the Union GST would have initiated proceedings. While it is true that the proceedings pertaining to the SCN dated 18 November 2024 are still pending and which is one issued at the behest of the State GST authorities, we find ourselves unable to countenance the expression “any proceeding” appearing in Section 6(2)(b) as being liable to be extended to a search or investigation that may have been undertaken.
The Delhi High court ruled that where assessee impugned summons, emanated from a search conducted by CGST authorities, documents had already been submitted to State Authority who had framed final orders undero section 73 of CGST Act, search by CGST authority would stand clearly distinct and separate from proceedings which authorities, be it Central or State, may propose to undertake under sections 73 or 74 of GST Act, impugned summons were not to be interdicted.
Case Details
Case Title: Armour Security India Limited Versus CGST Commissioner
Case No.: Petition(S) For Special Leave To Appeal (C) No(S). 6092/2025
Date: 06-03-2025
Counsel For Petitioner: Sridhar Potaraju, Sr. Adv.
