The Gujarat High Court directed to grant opportunity of hearing to pass order in Form GST DRC-7 and noted that non-consideration of reply is violation of natural justice principles.
The petitioner, Daksh Enterprise is a partnership firm having its registered office and a notice under Section 61 of the CGST / GGST was issued to the petitioner on 05.07.2021. Subsequently, it is the case of the petitioner that on 07.02.2022, a show cause notice / intimation in Form GST DRC – 01 was issued on 07.02.2022, wherein, a demand has been raised against the petitioner for the financial year 2019-2020.
It is the case of the petitioner that pursuant to the show cause notice, the petitioner responded in detail by filing a reply on 19.02.2022. Further, considering the reply so filed, by the impugned order dated 06.06.2022, the petitioner has been saddled with the liability to pay the amounts so stated in the order in Form GST DRC 07.
As pointed out by the counsel for the petitioner, perusal of the decision impugned dated 06.06.2022, indicated that the authorities have proceeded on an assumption that pursuant to the show cause notice, a response had to be filed on, or before 14.02.2022, which the petitioner did not so file, and therefore, the order was passed.
A Division Bench of Justice Biren Vaishnav and Justice Mauna M Bhatt observed that “Evident it is from the show cause notice dated 05.02.2022 that a response was to be filed by the petitioner latest by 20.02.2022, which the petitioner in fact had filed a day prior thereto on 19.02.2022. The impugned order does not reflect consideration of the reply so filed and only on this ground, as there is a violation of principles of natural justice and non consideration of the reply so filed, the order dated 06.06.2022 is hereby quashed and set aside.”
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