The Calcutta High Court today granted relief to G.P. Tronics Private Limited and its co-petitioner by permitting them to file an appeal against an order passed under Section 73 of the West Bengal and Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, even though they failed to respond to a show-cause notice. The bench held that disputed factual issues must be addressed through statutory appeal rather than writ jurisdiction.
The bench of Justice Raja Basu Chowdhury emphasised that writ jurisdiction is ill-suited for resolving disputed questions of fact when a multi-tiered adjudication process and an appellate remedy are available.
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The petitioners challenged an order dated 13 September 2024, covering the April 2018 to March 2019 tax period, on the grounds that the proper officert_ adjudicated the case ex parte without a hearing and without granting adequate adjournments.
The show-cause notice in Form DRC-1 was served on 31 October 2023, and although the petitioners applied for an adjournment, they did not file a substantive response; as a result, the adjudicating authority decided the case on the merits without further input from the assessees.
Justice Basu Chowdhury observed that the writ petition was filed on 18 October 2024—over a month after the impugned order—and that no satisfactory explanation was offered for the delay; in his view, it would be imprudent for the High Court to entertain the petition when an appeal lay under the GST framework.
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Although the court declined extraordinary writ relief, it recognised that the petitioners must not be left remediless. It therefore disposed of the petition, directing the petitioners to file an appeal before the first appellate authority within four weeks from the date of the order, complete all formalities, and include an application for condonation of delay; the appellate authority was instructed to note both the pendency of the writ petition and the High Court’s observations, and to decide the appeal on its merits
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