The Delhi High Court allowed the withdrawal of petition as the show cause notice was issued beyond the period of limitation under Section 73 of the Finance Act, 1944.
The petitioner impugned the show cause notice dated 27.04.2021 and contends that the show cause notice is beyond the period of limitation prescribed under Section 73 of the Finance Act, 1994.
The counsel for the respondents raised a preliminary objection with regard to the maintainability of the present petition and submits that the show cause notice has been issued by applying proviso to Section 73(1) and the extended period of limitation has been made applicable. The counsel without prejudice submitted that this plea could have been raised by the petitioner before the Adjudicating Authority.
In view of the above objection, the counsel for the petitioner sought leave to withdraw the petition reserving the right of the petitioner to raise all pleas permissible in law including the invocation of extended period of limitation before the Adjudicating Authority and prayed that in view of pendency of the present petition, reply to the show cause notice could not be filed and time be granted to file a reply.
A Division Bench of Justices Sanjeev Sachdeva and Ravinder Dudeja observed that “In view of the above, the petition is dismissed as withdrawn reserving the right of the petitioner to take all permissible pleas in law in response to the show cause notice. Petitioner shall file a reply to the show cause notice within a period of 30 days from today. Thereafter, it would be open to the adjudicating authority to adjudicate the show cause notice including the question of invocation of extended period of limitation in accordance with law, after giving an opportunity of personal hearing to the petitioner, without being influenced by anything stated in this order.”
“It is clarified that this Court has neither considered nor commented on the merits and contentions of the either party. All rights and contentions of the parties are reserved. It is further clarified that the time spent in this petition shall not be counted towards the period of limitation prescribed under Section 73(4B) (b) of the Finance Act, 1994” the Court noted.
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