In a recent ruling, a division bench of the Telangana High Court has slammed a Joint Commissioner of VAT department for not granting seven days time to file reply as mentioned in the show-cause notice.
Petitioner, M/s Harshit Constructions, is a registered dealer under the Telangana Value Added Tax Act, 2005, is engaged in the business of real estate development and construction. The petitioner received a show cause notice on 11.07.2022 wherein 7 days were allowed to respond. The Seven days, as per the notice started from 11.07.2022 and ended on 18.07.2022. However, before the period of seven days could expire and before the petitioner could file objection, 1st respondent passed the impugned order on 16.07.2022 affirming the addition proposed in the show cause notice.
When the 1st respondent had granted seven days’ time to the petitioner to submit written objection on the proposed revision of assessment, he ought to have waited till expiry of the aforesaid period. Without the aforesaid period being completed, 1st respondent hastily passed the order dated 16.07.2022 thereby pre-empting the petitioner from filing written objection.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice C.V.Bhaskar Reddy observed that “When we queried Mr. K.Raji Reddy as to how an officer of the level of Joint Commissioner of Commercial Tax could commit such a mistake, explanation furnished is that the Joint Commissioner was under the impression that the period of seven days would commence from the date of show cause notice.”
“When the show cause notice itself clearly says that petitioner should file written statement within seven days of receipt of the notice, we fail to understand as to how 1st respondent could have arrived at such a conclusion,” the Court said.
Quashing the notice, the bench observed that “We are not satisfied with such an explanation. However, in the present proceeding we are not inclined to delve into this aspect of the matter but in an appropriate case we may consider awarding exemplary costs if we are of the view that such mistakes are not bona fide.”
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