GST Adjudication Without Mandatory Hearing u/s 75(4) Unsustainable: Calcutta HC [Read Order]

The Calcutta High Court has set aside a GST ( Goods and Services Tax ) order passed under Section 73 of the WBGST/CGST Act, 2017, holding it to be unsustainable due to non-compliance with the mandatory requirement of granting an opportunity of hearing under Section 75(4).

The petitioner, Annu Projects Private Limited, challenged the appellate authority’s order dated 22 January 2025, which had rejected its appeal as time-barred against the adjudication order dated 24 April 2024 for the period April 2018-March 2019.

The petitioner contended that the show cause notice issued on 15 December 2023 was uploaded under the “Additional notices and orders” tab on the GST portal, without adequate intimation, and the adjudication order was also uploaded in the same manner. This, they argued, led to their non-participation in the proceedings.

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Justice Raja Basu Chowdhury noted that the adjudicating authority had failed to provide the petitioner with a personal hearing as mandated by Section 75(4).

The court noted that the delay in filing the appeal was marginal and that the denial of a hearing was an admitted fact; it held the adjudication order to be unsustainable in law.

The matter was remanded to the adjudicating authority for a fresh decision on merits, with liberty to the petitioner to file a reply to the original show cause notice within two weeks. The bench also directed that the pre-deposit already made be retained to the credit of the proceedings and set aside the appellate authority’s order as a consequence.