The Delhi High Court in a recent case directed the assessee milk federation to correct the details of address mentioned in Goods and Service Tax (GST) Portal, as the GST Show cause notice (scn) issued on wrong address. The court found that the confusion that has been caused by the addresses has ensured that the personal hearing notices have not been served upon the petitioner.
The Punjab State Cooperative Milk Producers Federation Ltd, the Petitioner Federation has challenged the impugned Order-In-Original dated 30th January, 2025 (“the impugned order”) passed under Section 74 of the Central Goods and Services Tax, 2017 ( “the CGST Act”).
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The allegation of the Petitioner is that the Show Cause Notice which was issued on 15th November, 2022 (“SCN”) was received by the Petitioner for the first time vide letter dated 02nd March, 2023. The case of the Petitioner is that there are three addresses that are being used by the Department qua the Petitioner. Out of these three addresses, the current address of the Petitioner is the Karol Bagh address. However, it is stated that the petitioner had filed a form for changing details of one of its directors, which was uploaded earlier in 2019. In the said form, the address of East Patel Nagar appears to have been inadvertently included in the said form.
Since the SCN was sent to the Patel Nagar Address, the petitioner did not receive the same earlier. The same was received by the Petitioner only when the letter dated 02nd March, 2023, was received. The petitioner then filed its reply to the SCN and also wrote to the Commissionerate, West on 15th May, 2023, stating that the original SCN was not received and was also not uploaded on the GST portal. A detailed reply was also submitted thereafter.
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Ms. Ananya Kapoor, Counsel for the petitioner, submitted that the department is well aware of the Karol Bagh address of the petitioner, which is evident from the letter written on 02nd March, 2023, as also the subsequent letters of the department. However, unfortunately, the confusion that has been caused by the addresses has ensured that the personal hearing notices have not been served upon the petitioner.
Mr. Akash Panwar, counsel for the department, has pointed out that the form, which was filed to upload the correct details of the director of the petitioner itself, gave the East Patel Nagar address. However, the counsel for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner is not aware of how the said address came to be updated on the said form.
Be that as it may, the Petitioner Federation, being a milk producers’ society, it has not had an opportunity to personally appear and argue its matter before the Department; it is deemed appropriate to set aside the impugned order dated 30th January, 2025. The SCN has already been received by the petitioner. Let the personal hearing notice be now served upon the Petitioner at the following email address: bodelhi@verka.coop and acc.milkfed@verka.coop, and the same shall also be uploaded on the portal.
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It is made clear that if the email is received and the personal hearing is not attended, no further opportunity shall be granted to the Petitioner Federation. Only one opportunity is being granted in the unique facts of the case. The limitation in respect of passing of the order under the SCN shall not apply to the facts of the case as well.
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A division bench of Justice Prathiba M. Singh and Justice Rajneesh Kumar Gupta directed the petitioners to get all their details corrected on the GST portal within 15 days, failing which the department will not be blamed for future notices being sent at the wrong address. The SCN having been issued by the Commissionerate West, because of the East Patel Nagar address, the Petitioner gives up its challenge, if any, to the jurisdiction. The said show cause notice shall now be adjudicated by the Commissionerate, North in terms of the Karol Bagh address of the Petitioner.
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