The Gauhati High Court has ruled that a proper officer under the CGST Act, 2017, has the jurisdiction to issue a single Show Cause Notice (SCN) for more than one financial year, as long as the proceedings about each year are commenced within the statutory limitation period specified under Sections 73(2) and 74(2) of the Act.
Tata Projects Limited, Quantum Infratech and Bitchem Asphalt Technologies Limited filed a batch of writ petitions that contested the maintainability of proceedings initiated via consolidated SCNs.
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The applicants claimed that every fiscal year comprises a distinct unit under the GST structure and thus separate notices must have been issued for each year.
The petitioners contended that returns were filed separately for each tax period and that annual returns were to be furnished on a financial-year basis under Sections 39 and 44 of the CGST Act.
It was also claimed that the limitation specified under Sections 73(10) and 74(10) is to be computed independently for every financial year, and that clubbing several years into a single notice is contrary to the statutory scheme.
The Revenue stated that Sections 73(1), 73(3), 74(1), and 74(3) include phrases such as “for any period” and “for such periods,” which specify that the legislature intended to allow consolidated proceedings.
The court, analysing the statutory framework, mentioned that Sections 73 and 74 do not mandate the issuance of a separate notice for each fiscal year.
The Court stated that the cause of action to apply such norms emerges from non-payment, short payment, erroneous refund, or wrongful availment of input tax credit (ITC) and not from the financial year itself.
Thereafter, the Court observed that Sections 73(2) and 74(2) only levy restrictions on the timelines for issuance of notices; although Sections 73(10) and 74(10) specify the outer limit for passing adjudication orders. The norms do not restrict a consolidated notice or a common adjudication order that includes several financial years.
Subsequently, the HC quashed the jurisdictional issues of the applicants and affirmed that common notices and common orders that include different financial years are legally allowable under Sections 73 and 74 of the CGST Act, 2017.
| Case Title | M/S Tata Projects Limited vs. Union of India |
| Case No. | Case No. : WP(C)/2922/2025 |
| For the Petitioner | MR. GK Deka, S Rabha, and MR. A M Baruah |
| For the Respondent | DY. S.G.I |
| Gauhati High Court | Read Order |
