Court Quashes Decades-Old Orders Due to Adjudication Delays; Insufficient Justifications from Respondents Cited.

The Bombay HC quashed and set aside the show cause notices and orders in original due to unjustified delays in adjudication, ranging from 9 to 20 years. The Respondents' reasons, such as transfer to the call book and office restructuring, were deemed insufficient. The Court ruled in favor of the Petitioners, making the rule absolute without awarding costs, and disposed of any pending Interim Applications.

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Issues:
Delay in adjudication of show cause notice.

Analysis:
The High Court of Bombay heard various Petitions with similar issues related to delays in adjudication of show cause notices ranging from 9 to 20 years. The Respondents cited reasons such as transferring the notice to the call book or office restructuring for the delays. However, the Court noted that there was no evidence of the Respondents informing the Petitioners about the transfer to the call book. The restructuring reason was deemed insufficient to justify delays of such magnitude. The Court referred to previous cases where similar reasons were rejected, including Coventry Estates Pvt. Ltd. vs. The Joint Commissioner CGST and Central Excise and others, and many others. The Court consistently rejected the contentions based on transfer to call book or office restructuring. Therefore, the Court quashed and set aside the show cause notices and orders in original due to the lack of justification for the delays in adjudication.

The Court emphasized that the reasons provided by the Respondents in the present Petitions were identical to those rejected in previous cases. Following the decisions of the Coordinate Benches and the Court's own previous judgments, the Court ruled in favor of the Petitioners and quashed the show cause notices and orders due to unjustified delays. The Court made the rule absolute and did not award any costs. Any pending Interim Applications were also disposed of accordingly.

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