Advance ruling bar for prior summons and search proceedings under GST when the same issue was already under investigation.

Prior summons and search proceedings on the same classification dispute barred a later advance ruling application under the proviso to section 98(2) of the CGST Act. The Authority treated summons proceedings under section 70, which are deemed judicial proceedings, and search proceedings under section 67 as falling within the phrase "any proceeding" in the proviso. Because those investigation proceedings were already pending before the application was filed, and were not disclosed in the declaration form, the advance ruling request was held non-maintainable.

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Issues: Whether the advance ruling application was maintainable when, before its filing, the applicant was already subjected to search and summons proceedings on the same classification dispute, attracting the bar under the proviso to section 98(2) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.

Analysis: The Authority found that summons had been issued under section 70(1) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 prior to the filing of the advance ruling application, and that section 70(2) deems such inquiry to be a judicial proceeding for the purposes of sections 193 and 228 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. It also recorded that search proceedings had been initiated under section 67(2) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and Rule 139(1) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017. On that basis, the Authority held that the expression "any proceeding" in the proviso to section 98(2) is wide enough to include such investigation proceedings, and that the applicant had not disclosed the pending proceedings when making the declaration in the application form.

Conclusion: The application was barred by the proviso to section 98(2) and was not maintainable.

Final Conclusion: The advance ruling request failed at the threshold because prior inquiry and summons proceedings on the same issue rendered the application inadmissible.

Ratio Decidendi: For purposes of the bar under the proviso to section 98(2) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, prior summons inquiry proceedings on the same issue constitute "any proceeding" and render a subsequent advance ruling application non-maintainable.

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