Court Voids Show Cause Notices Due to 12-Year Delay in Adjudication, Rejects Respondents' Justification.

The HC quashed and set aside the show cause notices dated 20 October 2011 and 6 August 2012 due to an unjustified delay of over 12 years in adjudication. The court found no valid justification for the delay, rejecting the respondents' reliance on the Canon India Pvt. Ltd. decision. The writ petition was disposed of without costs.

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Issues: Delay in adjudication of show cause notices.

The judgment concerns a petition challenging show cause notices dated 20 October 2011 and 6 August 2012 due to a delay of over 12 years in their adjudication. The petitioner relied on various decisions, including Coventry Estates Pvt. Ltd. vs. The Joint Commissioner CGST and Central Excise, to support their argument that such delays render the notices bad in law. The respondents, represented by Mr. Adik, attempted to justify the delay by citing the decision in Canon India Private Limited vs. Commissioner of Customs. However, it was revealed that the petitioner was not informed about the pending adjudication due to this decision. The court noted that the Canon India Private Limited decision was rendered in 2021, almost ten years after the issuance of the show cause notices, and found no other justifications for the delay. Consequently, in line with previous decisions, the court quashed and set aside the show cause notices dated 20 October 2011 and 6 August 2012, ultimately disposing of the writ petition without any costs.

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