TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2023 (2) TMI 650
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....ce for final disposal, passed the following : "1. The petitioner is before this Court seeking to challenge the action of the respondent no.2 in cancelling the GST registration raising the ground of gross violation of principles of natural justice in quasi-judicial proceedings with the following prayers: "14(a) That this Hon'ble Court may be pleased to issue a writ of certiorari and any other appropriate Writ, Order or direction, in the nature of Writ, thereby calling for the records maintained by the Respondent No.2 and after going into the validity and legality of the impugned Show Cause Notice dated 09.05.2022 (Annexure-B), and consequent ex-parte Order dated 24.06.2022, cancelling the Registration; 24DGDPS7158MIZR, (Ann....
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....notice for cancellation of registration was issued on 09.05.2002. It says thus: "In case, Registration has been obtained by means of fraud, willful misstatement or suppression of facts. Your are hereby directed to furnish a reply to the notice within seven working days from the date of service of this notice." 5. Order of cancellation, according to the respondents, has come on some other grounds. Noticing the hollowness, the following paragraphs of the base decision of this Court in the case of Aggarwal Dyeing and Printing Works vs. State of Gujarat, [2022] 137 taxmann.com 332 (Gujarat) are reproduced as under: "11. At the outset, we notice that it is settled legal position of law that reasons are heart and soul of the ....
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....e set out below: "a. In India the judicial trend has always been to record reasons, even in administrative decisions, if such decisions affect anyone prejudicially. b. A quasi-judicial authority must record reasons in support of its conclusions. c. Insistence on recording of reasons is meant to serve the wider principle of justice that justice must not only be done it must also appear to be done as well. d. Recording of reasons also operates as a valid restraint on any possible arbitrary exercise of judicial and quasijudicial or even administrative power. e. Reasons reassure that discretion has been exercised by the decision maker on relevant grounds and by disregarding extraneous considerations.....
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.... cannot be doubted that transparency is the sine qua non of restraint on abuse of judicial powers. Transparency in decision making not only makes the judges and decision makers less prone to errors but also makes them subject to broader scrutiny (See David Shapiro in Defence of Judicial Candor (1987) 100 Harvard Law Review 731-737);. n. Since the requirement to record reasons emanates from the broad doctrine of fairness in decision making, the said requirement is now virtually a component of human rights and was considered part of Strasbourg Jurisprudence. See (1994) 19 EHRR 553 at 562 para 29 and Anya v. University of Oxford, 2001 EWCA Civ 405, wherein the Court referred to Article 6 of European Convention of Human Rights which re....
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....on hand. Thus, the sum and substance of various judgments on the principles of natural justice is to the effect that wherever an order is likely to result in civil consequences, though the statute or provision of law, by itself, does not provide for an opportunity of hearing, the requirement of opportunity of hearing has to be read into the provision. 13. It cannot be disputed that the writ applicant is liable to both civil and penal consequences pursuant to the impugned order of cancellation of certificate of registration. In all the writ applications we could note from the tabular details that the show cause notice though issued in the prescribed form does not elaborate the reasons and the one line reason mentioned is nothing but....
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....lated date or fail to appear for personal hearing on the appointed date and time, the case will be decided ex parte on the basis of available records and on merits. Place : Gujarat Signature valid digitally signed by OS Goods and Service Tax Network 1. Date: 2018.09.18 13.00.44" 13.1 To say the least, the respondent authority i.e. the Assistant/Deputy Commissioner, State tax Officer ought to have atleast incorporated specific details to the contents of the show cause. Any prudent person would fail to respond to such show cause notice bereft of details thereby making the mechanism of issuing show cause notice a mere formality and an eye wash." 6. This Court has followed Aggarwal Dyeing and Prin....