The Madras High Court quashed order on gross violation of natural justice principles as no personal hearing granted under Section 75 (4) of Goods and Services Tax (GST) Act.
The Writ Petition has been filed challenging the impugned assessment order for the assessment year 2021-2022 on the ground that no personal hearing was afforded to the petitioner in the impugned assessment proceedings. In the impugned assessment order, the tax liability of the petitioner has been determined under the CGST and SGST and a penalty has been imposed.
The petitioner, Sendhil Kumar, contended that as per Section 75 (4) of the GST Act, 2017, personal hearing ought to have been afforded to the petitioner since an adverse decision has been taken by the respondent under the impugned assessment order.
As seen from Section 75 (4) of the Act, whenever the respondent contemplates any adverse decision against the assessee, whether a request is received from the assessee for hearing or not, the respondent will have to grant personal hearing to the assessee, the petitioner herein.
In previous decisions of the Madras High Court it has been held that right of personal hearing to the assessee is mandatory whenever the respondent contemplates any adverse decision in the assessment proceedings.
Admittedly, no personal hearing was afforded to the petitioner in the impugned assessment proceedings as seen from the impugned Assessment order. An adverse decision has also been taken by the respondent against the petitioner in the impugned assessment order.
The Court of Justice Abdul Quddhose observed that “therefore, necessarily the impugned assessment order has to be quashed on the ground of violation of the principles of natural justice as no personal hearing has been granted to the petitioner as contemplated under Section 75(4) of the GST Act, 2017 and remanded back to the respondent for fresh consideration on merits and in accordance with law.”
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