TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2021 (11) TMI 177
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....ow-cause notice dated August 28, 2018, alleging non-payment/short payment of service tax amounting to prima facie breach of the Finance Act, 1994, the Service Tax Rules, 1994 and other provisions. 2. It is not disputed at the bar that an appeal lies against the impugned order to the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (hereafter "the Tribunal", for short) and Mr. Mishra, learned advocate for the respondents has objected to the maintainability of this writ petition by urging that the petitioner should be relegated to the appellate forum. It is also the contention of Mr. Mishra that the provisions of the relevant law provide a final appeal to the Supreme Court and that decisions of such court are legion where it has been autho....
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....hallenge in this writ petition and, thus, the same ought to be entertained. 4. Mr. Chilana, to buttress his contention of the order under challenge being vulnerable for breach of natural justice, has drawn our attention to paragraph 29 thereof, where it is recorded that the petitioner had quoted several case laws and submitted various international jurisprudence as well as paragraph 32 where the Commissioner recorded that on consideration of such case laws, he did not find the same to be applicable to the present case. According to Mr. Chilana, no other reason has been assigned why such case laws did not appeal to the Commissioner and this, according to Mr. Chilana, amounts to a clear violation of the principles of natural justice which ou....
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....dicious exercise of its discretion decline interference and relegate the party to avail such remedy. However, the decision in Commercial Steel Limited (supra) reiterates in paragraph 11 the exceptions on the existence of any one whereof the writ court may feel justified in entertaining a writ petition despite the availability of an alternative, efficacious and speedy remedy to the party aggrieved. 10. Before we proceed to examine Mr. Chilana's argument, we have noted that the Finance Act provides a complete machinery to challenge an order of assessment before the Tribunal. Also, an appeal from the appellate order would lie before the Supreme Court. The decision in Titaghur Paper Mills Co. Ltd. vs State of Orissa, reported in (1983) 2 SCC 4....
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....t be proved. It has also been held to violate natural justice if the order that is ultimately passed in the proceedings, after extending due, adequate and reasonable opportunity of hearing, does not reveal the grounds in support of the conclusion reached by the decision maker. In other words, what has been emphasized by the law courts is that an order determining rights and liabilities of parties ought to meet the tests of "why" and "what", where the "what" (the conclusion) has the "why" (the reasons) to rest on. Should the reason(s) be absent in an order and the link between the materials on record and the conclusion not established, the order could be susceptible to a charge of being passed in violation of natural justice. This is what th....
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....gislation. 12. In the present case, none of the above exceptions was established. There was, in fact, no violation of the principles of natural justice since a notice was served on the person in charge of the conveyance. In this backdrop, it was not appropriate for the High Court to entertain a writ petition. The assessment of facts would have to be carried out by the appellate authority. As a matter of fact, the High Court has while doing this exercise proceeded on the basis of surmises. However, since we are inclined to relegate the respondent to the pursuit of the alternate statutory remedy under Section 107, this Court makes no observation on the merits of the case of the respondent." 14. Even in Commercial Steel Limited (supra), the....
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.... argument put forth before us is, however, different. It does not pertain to the aforesaid three shades. There is no complaint from the side of the petitioner that he was not heard by the Commissioner prior to the order-in-original being made or that fair, adequate and reasonable opportunity to place the case/defend the proposed action was not extended. It is also not the complaint that the order has not assigned reasons in support of the conclusion reached. The petitioner is left aggrieved because the impugned order does not say, in so many words, as to why the authorities cited by it were not considered to be applicable. This, according to Mr. Chilana, is a violation of natural justice. 16. We must remember that the Commissioner, while h....