Penalty cannot be imposed without prior notice of penal action in the show cause notice.

Penalty cannot be sustained where the show cause notice does not propose penal action or allege the contravention attracting penalty. A notice referring only to Rule 57E, which governs recovery of wrongly taken credit, without invoking any penal provision, fails to put the noticee on notice of possible penalty. The stated conclusion is that the penalty order was unsustainable and penalty was not imposable.

---

---

Issues: Whether penalty could be imposed when the show cause notice did not propose penal action or allege the contravention attracting penalty.

Analysis: The notice was examined and found to contain no stipulation for imposition of penalty. It referred only to Rule 57E, which governs recovery of wrongly taken credit and does not itself provide for penalty. No other penal provision was invoked in the notice. Following earlier Tribunal decisions, penalty cannot be sustained when the notice does not put the noticee to notice of penal action.

Conclusion: Penalty was not imposable and the order imposing penalty was unsustainable.

---