[BREAKING] Supreme Court stays Andhra Pradesh HC Ruling Quashing GST SCN & Assessment Order Issued without DIN [Read Order]

The Supreme Court recently stayed a ruling by the Andhra Pradesh High Court where the High Court had set aside an impugned summary show-cause notice (SCN) in Form GST DRC-01 and the related assessment order for lack of a valid Document Identification Number (DIN) on them.

The dispute originated from proceedings initiated by the Assistant Commissioner, Eluru CGST Division against the assessee M/s Novelty Reddy and Reddy Motors Pvt. Ltd.

The department had issued a summary SCN (Form DRC-01) dated November 27, 2024 and an assessment order dated February 25, 2025 for the tax period April 2020 to March 2021.

The orders were challenged by the assessee before the High Court of Andhra Pradesh, contending that the impugned orders were uploaded on the portal without a valid DIN and, therefore, were unsigned and invalid. The assessee thus sought quashal of the unsigned DRC-01, the SCN and the consequent DRC-07 assessment order.

Before the High Court, the Government Pleader for Commercial Taxes, on instructions, accepted that the impugned orders did indeed not carry a DIN.

The High Court bench of Justice R. Raghunandan Rao and Justice Sumathi Jagadam had examined the statutory scheme and the CBIC Circular No.128/47/2019-GST dated December 23, 2019 where it was held that non-mention of a DIN would mitigate the validity of proceedings undertaken on such basis.

The Andhra Pradesh High Court further noted that the issue had earlier been considered by the Supreme Court in Pradeep Goyal v. Union of India (2022) and by a Division Bench of the High Court in M/s. Cluster Enterprises Vs. The Deputy Assistant Commissioner (ST)-2, Kadapa 2 (2024) where it was categorically held that an order lacking a DIN is “non est” and must be set aside.

The High Court accordingly allowed the writ and set aside the impugned proceedings and granted liberty to the revenue to issue fresh proceedings with an assigned DIN, excluding the intervening period for limitation.

Aggrieved, the Assistant Commissioner, CGST approached the Supreme Court by way of the present Special Leave Petition, represented by V.C. Bharathi, Gurmeet Singh Makker, Sarthak Karol, Anmol Chandan, Snehashish Mukharji.

The Supreme Court Bench of Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice K.V. Viswanathan heard the revenue counsel and after proceeding to issue notice while staying the High Court order subject to the protective condition that no coercive action be taken against the assessee.

Given the stay by the Supreme Court, along with directions to the Revenue to abstain from coerce action once again opens up the debate of whether omission of DIN renders GST orders void or not.

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