A division bench of the Rajasthan High Court comprising the Acting Chief Justice Mr. Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Mr. Justice Sameer Jain has refused to grant exemption to the assessee from personal appearance under the provisions of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.
The petitioner, Suresh Balkrishna Jajra approached the High Court seeking direction of exemption from personal appearance pursuant to summons issued to the petitioner under Section 70 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.
The petitioner contended that he is entitled to be represented through his representative in view of the provisions contained in Section 116 of the Act of 2017 is not acceptable in law because the provisions under Section 116 of the Act of 2017 will not be applicable when a person is required under the Act to appear personally for examination on oath or affirmation. The petitioner further relied on the FAQs issued in support of his contention.
After hearing the arguments, the bench observed that “FAQs do not provide that such kind of request for representation through legal representative would be permissible even in those cases which are not covered under Section 116 of the Act of 2017, that too by way of administrative instructions, as that would be against the provisions of law.”
“Before parting with the case, this Court, taking note of the directions issued by Their Lordships in the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of Paramvir Singh Saini Vs. Baljit Singh & Others (2021) 1 SCC 184, would observe that even in the matter of issuance of summons under Section 70 of the Act of 2017 for personal appearance and recording of statement, certain procedure has to be followed as stated therein. All such procedure as laid down therein will have to be followed by the respondents while recording the statement of the petitioner pursuant to summons issued under Section 70 of the Act of 2017,” the Court added.
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