Assessment orders quashed over invalid Section 168A notification; matter remitted for fresh merit reconsideration after no reply

HC quashed the impugned assessment orders challenging extension of limitation and related notifications under Section 168A, noting prior Principal Bench authority that had invalidated the contested notification. The petitions were allowed; since the petitioner had not replied to precursor notices, the matters are remitted to the respondents for reconsideration and fresh orders on merits.

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Petition challenging assessment orders dated 25.11.2023 and 26.12.2023 for AYs 2017-18 and 2019-20 was dismissed on procedural delay but disposed by quashing the impugned assessment orders and remitting matters for fresh decision. The court relied on a recent Principal Bench decision in M/s. Tata Play Ltd. (2025 (7) TMI 772), which held that authorities "shall have the benefit of exclusion of the period 15.03.2020 to 28.02.2022, while reckoning limitation under sub section (2) and (10) to Section 73 of CGST Act" and that Notification Nos.9 and 56 of 2023 "stands vitiated and illegal" for specified reasons. The reasons include that the notifications (a) diminish/curtail limitation created by the Supreme Court's Article 142 order; (b) proceed on an erroneous assumption as to that order's scope; (c) extinguish vested rights by diminishing limitation; (d) were issued without examining relevant material; (e) No.56/2023 was issued prior to GST Council recommendation; and (f) it relied on GIC recommendations in place of the GST Council. Respondents may proceed subject to the Supreme Court's interim order in the cited HCC-SEW-MEIL-AAG JV matter. No costs.

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