On June 30, the Tripura High Court stated that the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) authorities cannot initiate adjudication proceedings on issues that have already been addressed by the State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) authorities regarding the same subject matter.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice M.S. Ramachandra Rao and Justice Biswajit Palit set aside a challenge to a demand cum show cause notice on 22 July 2024 and an Order-in-Original dated 3 February 2025 issued u/s 74 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. The provision deals with unpaid tax recovery or short paid due to fraud, wilful misstatement, or suppression of facts.
Relying on the decision of the Supreme Court judgment in Armour Security (India) Ltd., the Court said that “parallel proceedings should not be initiated by other tax administrations when one of the tax administrations has already initiated intelligence-based enforcement action.”
The dispute emerged from the proceedings initiated by the CGST authorities against the applicant for an alleged excess claim of ITC for the financial years 2018-19 and 2019-20, including allegations of short payment of GST for those years and issues concerning the FY 2020-21.
Read More: A Full Guide to Claim ITC in GSTR-3B Form Using GST IMS
The Court said that the CGST authorities do not have jurisdiction to analyse the problem of excess claim of the ITC for the financial years 2018-19 and 2019-20, as the problem had earlier been made the subject matter of proceedings begun by the SGST authorities.
The bench said that the proceedings for the alleged short GST payment for the financial years 2018-19 and 2019-20, as well as issues for the FY 2020-21 that were not included under the SGST proceedings, could continue.
Therefore, the HC set aside the impugned adjudication order and asked the adjudicating authority to pass a fresh order within 3 months, after furnishing a chance of hearing to the applicant.
| Case Title | Sri Shekhar Chandra Podder v. The Union of India & Ors. |
| Case No. | WP(C) No.285 of 2025 |
| For Petitioner | Mr. Bibhal Nandi Majumder, Sr. Advocate |
| For Respondent | Mr. Bidyut Majumder, Deputy SGI |
| Tripura High Court | Read Order |
