A division bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, while considering a writ petition challenging the GST assessment against the Wedding & Event Planners, refused to quash the proceedings as the Court prima facie found that it cannot be said that the Petitioner has not conducted any event during the relevant period.
The petitioners contended that during the pandemic period, there was no events. However, the department obtained copies of the Facebook documents available and initiated proceedings. It was contended that the Assessment Order passed by the department is purely based on Facebook details and social media postings.
Analysing the facts deeply, Justice C.Praveen Kumar and Justice Tarlada Rajasekhar Rao observed that “Coming to the second contention i.e., the Assessment Order came to be passed by the Second Respondent basing on Facebook details and social media postings. A perusal of the Order impugned, prima facie, show that the authorities gathered information from the platform of the Petitioner, which is used for promotion of business and basing on that G.S.T. was assessed.”
Concluding the order, the Court added that “Hence, we do not want to go into these factual aspects and, accordingly, the Writ Petition is dismissed giving liberty to the Petitioner to approach the Appellate Authority and avail the remedy by putting forth the grievances on the factual aspects. It is made clear that any observations made in this order are only for the purpose of passing this order and the same shall not influence the Appellate Authority while deciding the matter, in case any Appeal is filed. No order as to costs.”
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