A GST (Goods and Services Tax) order passed under Section 73 of the WBGST/CGST Act, 2017, has been set aside by the Calcutta High Court, holding it to be unsustainable due to non-compliance with the obligatory requirement of granting a hearing under Section 75(4).
Annu Projects Private Limited, the applicant, contested the order of the appellate authority on 22 January 2025, which had rejected its appeal as time-barred against the adjudication order dated 24 April 2024 for the period from April 2018 to March 2019.
SCN issued dated 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, the applicant claimed. They argued that this resulted in their lack of participation in the proceedings.
The adjudicating authority was unable to furnish the applicant with a personal hearing as obligated u/s 75(4), Justice Raja Basu Chowdhury cited.
As per the court, the late filing of the appeal was marginal and that the refusal of a hearing was a considered fact; it ruled the adjudication order to be non-sustainable in law.
Read Also: Calcutta HC: Non-compliance with the Statutory Provision of Section 75(4) Invalidates the GST Order
The case was remanded to the adjudicating authority for a fresh decision based on merits, with the privilege to the applicant to submit a response to the original SCN in 2 weeks. The bench asked that the pre-deposit be retained to the credit of proceedings and set aside the order of the appellate authority as a consequence.
| Case Title | Annu Projects Private Limited vs. Sr. Joint Commissioner |
| Case No. | WPA 4625 of 2025 |
| For petitioner | Mr. Rajeev Kumar Agarwal and Ms. Suman Sahani |
| For Respondent | Mr. Amitabrata Roy, Mr. Nilotpal Chatterjee, Mr. Tanoy Chakraborty, Mr. Saptak Sanyal, Mr. Debraj Sahu |
| Calcutta High Court | Read Order |
