In a significant ruling, the Madras High Court set aside a GST ( Goods and Services Tax ) order sent to an incorrect address and instructed the authorities to treat it as an addendum to the original show cause notice, which was sent to the correct address.
Karupanna Gounder Natarajan Suresh Kumar, the assessee, filed a petition challenging the impugned GST Order in Original. The GST order had been addressed to the petitioner’s current address, provided during GST registration effective from July 1, 2017. However, the preceding notices were sent to the previous address, used for Service Tax registration under the Finance Act, 1994.
The Senior Standing Counsel for the respondent argued that the notice preceding the impugned order had been served to the petitioner by email, to which there was no response.
Nonetheless, the court opined that the petitioner should be given an opportunity to address his grievances against the proposals in the preceding show cause notice, SCN No. 26/2021-ST, dated October 22, 2021.
Consequently, the impugned order was quashed, and the case was remitted back to the respondent to pass fresh orders on merits and in accordance with the law within 90 days from receiving a copy of this order.
The court instructed that the quashed order should be treated as an addendum to the show cause notice dated October 22, 2021. The assessee is expected to file a reply within 30 days from today, and the respondent must provide a hearing before issuing new orders. The writ petition was disposed of with these directions.
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