Petition Dismissed for Lack of Natural Justice Violation and Availability of Alternative Remedies

The HC dismissed the petition, holding that the petitioner was aware of and did not dispute ownership of the web portals inspected. Since the material used was publicly available and the petitioner was effectively confronted with it, there was no violation of natural justice. The court also noted the availability of alternative remedies and found no grounds for maintainability of the petition.

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Issues involved: Violation of principles of natural justice in passing the impugned order u/s 61 of CGST Act and Rule 99 of CGST Rules.

The writ petition sought to quash a notice dated 25/4/22 u/s 61 of CGST Act read with Rule 99 of CGST Rules in Form ASMT-10 for FY 2017-18 & 2018-19 and the impugned order dated 31/05/2023 passed by the Deputy Commissioner, Central Tax, GST, Division Wazirpur, Delhi, along with subsequent proceedings. The petitioner contended that the impugned order violated the principles of natural justice by considering material not included with the return or provided by the petitioner. The court noted that the material in question was gathered from specific URLs owned by the petitioner, and the petitioner was aware of this material. Consequently, the court found no merit in the argument that the principles of natural justice were violated.

The petitioner had an alternative statutory remedy against the impugned order. The petitioner's counsel argued that the order was passed in violation of natural justice, citing Para 19.3 of the impugned order. However, the court observed that the details in Para 19.3 were obtained from URLs owned by the petitioner, which were in the public domain. The court concluded that there was no violation of natural justice. As a result, the writ petition was dismissed, but the petitioner was not precluded from pursuing alternative remedies. All rights and contentions of the parties were kept open for further proceedings.

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