The High Court of Karnataka held that the writ remedy cannot be invoked by making the High Court as a middle authority or cannot be placed in between Commercial Tax Authority and Appellate Authority as per Section 107 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act.
The petitioner, M/s. L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering Limited Modular Fabrication Facility, an SEZ Judge Unit in L&T Shipbuilding Limited is engaged in procurement, fabrication, construction, and project management and integrated design to build solutions to Onshore and offshore Hydrocarbon Projects.
The petitioner was moving the goods from its SEZ Unit in Kattupalli, Tamil Nadu to their bonded warehouse at Hazira, Gujarat. Further, the movement of the said goods was processed by the SEZ unit of the petitioner at Kattupalli, Tamil Nadu.
The journey of all the assignments started. However, due to sudden lockdown announcement by the Government of India and the respective State Government movement of the goods were stopped abruptly. But the movement of goods vehicles was allowed subject to the relaxation of norms of lockdown.
One of the means of conveyance was intercepted and inspected by the respondent, Commercial Tax Officer, and on verification, they detained goods and conveyance on the ground as per the physical verification of the vehicle the quantity was 41 Metric Tonnes and declaration was made for 31 Metric Tonnes only.
The petitioner addressed a letter against detention on 22.05.2020 and explained that the discrepancy has arisen due to the clerical error of interchanging the weighment and quantity of 31 MT.
The respondent issued a notice proposing to demand an integrated tax of Rs.2,88,669/- and imposed a penalty equal to 100% of the tax amount under Section 129(1)(a) and penalty of Rs.13,51,051/- under Section 129(1)(b) of the GST Act.
The respondent authority submits that the appeal under Section 107 of Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 is to be filed before the appellate authority.
The single-judge bench of Justice N.K. Sudhindra Rao held that The appellate authority is stated to be Joint Commissioner of Commercial Taxes in the matter similar to the present one. Thus, when the appeal is provided and the authority is notified as stated above whether the Joint Commissioner or other authority the matter has to be agitated before the same and the writ remedy cannot be invoked by making the High Court as a middle authority or cannot be placed in between Commercial Tax Authority and Appellate Authority as per Section 107 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act.
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