The High Court of Gujarat has recently granted an opportunity of personal hearing to the taxpayer observing that the taxpayer could not be said to have got a fair opportunity of hearing before the concerned respondent authority. Accordingly, the Court said that one opportunity should be given to the writ applicants to put forward their case before the concerned respondent-authority in person.
The writ applicant, Hitech Project Pvt. Ltd. is a company engaged in the work of civil construction. It appears from the materials on the record that a show-cause notice was served upon the writ applicants calling upon them to show cause as to why the Central Excise duty amounting to Rs.27,57,942/- for the period between April 2011 and December 31, 2015, should not be recovered under Section 11A(4) of the Central Excise Act, 1944.
The show-cause notice also proposed to impose a penalty on one of the partners of the firm in relation to Shri Tejas Dalal under Rule 26 of the Rules.
The counsel for the petitioner-Company contended that his clients were not able to appear before the concerned authority as at the relevant point of time there was a complete lockdown on account of the COVID- 19 pandemic and the office of the writ applicants was also closed.
The division bench headed by the Chief Justice, Vikram Nath was of the view that the petitioner could not be said to have got a fair opportunity of hearing before the concerned respondent authority.
“As a result, the impugned communication in Form SVLDRS-3 is hereby quashed and set aside. The matter is remitted to the respondent No.3 herein i.e. the Designated Committee, Ahmedabad-South for fresh hearing on the issues in question. The respondent No.3 shall fix a particular date of personal hearing and intimate the same in writing to the writ applicants. The writ applicants upon receipt of such intimation shall appear before the respondent No.3 and make their submissions. Thereafter, the respondent No.3 shall pass a fresh order in accordance with the law,” the bench said.
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