TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2023 (2) TMI 935
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....suppression of facts. The petitioner was directed to appear on 28.06.2019, however, when no physical notice was received and as the petitioner is not techno savvy, he could not accede. 2.3 On 26.07.2019, pursuant to the said notice, respondent cancelled the registration of the petitioner without making any mention or reason of cancellation. 2.4 Petitioner preferred an application for revocation of cancellation of registration in Form GST REG-21 on portal on 01.08.2019. According to the petitioner, he had not been responded to on numerous occasions yet requested the respondent for time. When the restriction was released in post COVID period, he again made a request to the respondent to either accept or reject the application. When no actions had been taken by the respondent for about one and a half years, he had also raised the grievance for the revocation of registration on Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAM). 2.5 When emphasized that he had no intention to defraud the authority or make any suppression of facts, the petitioner, on 06.08.2019 on the charge of fake purchases is prosecuted, however, no charge-sheet till date has been filed and no sho....
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....o on further grounds, this petition is being preferred. The main prayers sought for are as follows : "5.1(a) A writ of mandamus, or any other appropriate writ, order and/or directions in the nature of mandamus to quash the order dated 26.07.2019 for cancellation of registration under GGST Act, 2017 and order dated 05.01.2022 issued by the respondent for rejection of application for revocation of cancellation order; (b) A writ of certiorari, or any other appropriate writ, order and/or directions in the nature of certiorari quashing the order dated 05.01.2022 without providing proper show cause notice; (c) Pending the hearing and final disposal of the petition, allow petitioner to continue business on the basis of registration certificate;" 3.1 On issuance of the notice, the affidavit-in-reply is filed by respondent No.1, reiterating the allegations and urging this Court that for quashing of the order dated 26.07.2019 cancelling the registration under the GGST Act and for rejection of the revocation of cancellation dated 05.01.2022. There are alternative and efficacious remedies provided. No order of rejection of revocation of cancelled registration was subjective in nature....
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....ears that pursuant to this order dated 24.11.2021, we noticed that on 13.12.2021, a letter is addressed to the Commercial Tax Officer seeking the revocation of cancellation of pending matter, where it is urged that without following the due procedure prescribed under the CGST Rules, the application for revocation is in the Form of GST REG-21 and GST portal has been preferred. It is also further urged that the Court had passed an order for ready reference, the application for revocation due to unknown reasons is yet to be decided, the directions of the Court have been sent. On 16.12.2021, he had been requested to furnish the documentary evidences. Yet another application of 27.12.2007 has been given, where also he has taken a stand that there is no show cause notice giving the details. He has no idea as to how they have alleged of the fraud or misrepresentation, the authority concerned for want of necessary documents and also on the ground that this is a case where investigating agency has already noticed. The bogus billing in case of the present petitioner and others, has already denied the cancellation of registration. 5.3 We could notice that the show cause notice, which has bee....
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....ration has been obtained by means of fraud, willful misstatement or suppression of facts. 9.2 The procedure for cancellation of registration can be summarized as under : i. A person already registered under any of the existing laws (Central excise, Service tax, VAT etc.), but who now is not liable to be registered under the GST Act has to submit an application electronically by 31st December 2017, in FORM GST REG-29 at the common portal for the cancellation of registration granted to him. The Superintendent of Central Tax Cancellation of Registration in GST 12 GST FLYERS shall, after conducting such enquiry as deemed fit, cancel the said registration. ii. The cancellation of registration under the State Goods and Services Tax Act or the Union Territory Goods and Services Tax Act, as the case may be, shall be deemed to be a cancellation of registration under Central Goods and Services Tax Act. iii. In the event, the Superintendent of Central Tax has reasons to believe that the registration of a person is liable to be cancelled, a notice to such person in FORM GST REG-17, requiring him to show cause, within a period of seven working days from the date of the service of su....
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....ation of registration, in FORM GST REG-21, to the Proper Officer (Assistant or Deputy Commissioners of Central Tax), within a period of thirty days from the date of the service of the order of cancellation of registration at the common portal, either directly or through a Facilitation Centre notified by the Commissioner: ii. However, if the registration has been cancelled for failure to furnish returns, application for revocation shall be filed, only after such returns are furnished and any amount due as tax, in terms of such returns, has been paid along with any amount payable towards interest, penalty and late fee in respect of the said returns. iii. On examination of the application if the Proper Officer (Assistant or Deputy Commissioners of Central Tax) is satisfied, for reasons to be recorded in writing, that there are sufficient grounds for revocation of cancellation of registration, then he shall revoke the cancellation of registration by an order in FORM GST REG-22 within a period of thirty days from the date of the receipt of the application and communicate the same to the applicant. iv. However, if on examination of the application for revocation, if the Proper Offi....
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.... Initially, the Supreme Court recognized a sort of demarcation between administrative orders and quasi-judicial orders but with the passage of time the distinction between the two got blurred and thinned out and virtually reached a vanishing point in the judgment of the Supreme Court in A.K. Kraipak v. Union of India, (1970) 1 SCR 45. The Hon'ble Supreme Court vide judgments in the cases of Ravi Yashwant Bhoir v. District Collector Raigad, (2012) 4 SCC 407, Sant Lal Gupta v. Modern Cooperative Grouop Housing Society Limited, (2010) 13 SCC 336; Kranti Associates Private Limited v. Masood Ahmed Khan, (2010) 9 SCC 496; Abdul Ghaffar v. State of Bihar, (2008) 3 SCC 258, has expanded the horizon of natural justice and reasons have been treated part of the natural justice. It has gone to the extent in holding that reasons are heart and soul of the order. The absence of reasons renders an order indefensible/unsustainable particularly when it is subject to appeal/revision. It is to be noted that in the case of Kranti Associates v. Masood Ahmed Khan, (2010) 9 SCC 496, the Hon'ble Supreme Court after considering various judgments formulated certain principles which are set out below ....
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.... 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 requires, "adequate and intelligent reasons must be given for judicial decision." o. In all common law jurisdictions judgments play a vital role in setting up precedents for the future. Therefore, for development of law, requirement of giving reasons for the decision is of the essence and is virtually a part of "Due Process". Thus, the position of law that emerges from the decisions mentioned above, is that assignment of reasons is imperative in nature and the speaking order doctrine mandates assigning the reason which is the heart and soul of the decision and said reasons must be the result of independent re-appreciation of evidence adduced and documents produced in the case. 12. At this s....
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....llation of Registration Whereas on the basis of information which has come to my notice, it appears that your registration is liable to be cancelled for the following reasons : 1. Any Tax payer other than composite taxpayer has not filed returns for a continuous period of six months. You are hereby directed to furnish a reply to the notice within seven working days from the date of service of this notice. You are hereby directed to appear before the undersigned on 27/09/2018 at 12:42. If you fail to furnish a reply within the stipulated 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....
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....n those statutes saying that before such delays are condoned the appellants or the applicants shall be heard, but on basis of practice which has grown during the years the courts and quasijudicial authorities have been hearing the appellants and applicants before dismissing such appeals or applications as barred by limitations. It can be said that courts have read the requirements of hearing the appellants or the applicants before dismissing their appeals or applications filed beyond time on principle of natural justice, although the concerned statute does not prescribe such requirement specifically." 15.1 The Appellate authority ought to have appreciated that the writ applicants at relevant point of time i.e. in year 2017, applied for registration which request was favourably considered by the authorities under the Act with a specific registration number allotted to the writ applicant. It was a transitional phase, whereby the old CST Act was repealed and the new regime of CGST/ GGST has come into force. With the different forms and procedure envisaged there under, any layman is bound to take time to adhered to the norms. The Record reveals that subsequently the writ applicants ....
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....fedded up with unnecessary litigation in this regard. 18. Our final conclusion are as under: 18.1 Until the Department is able to develop and upload an appropriate software in the portal which would enable the Department to feed all the necessary information and material particulars in the show cause notice as well as in the final order of cancellation of registration that may be passed, the authority concerned shall issue an appropriate show cause notice containing all the necessary details and information in a physical form and forward the same to the dealer by RPAD. In the same manner, when it comes to passing the final order, the same shall also be passed in a physical form containing all the necessary information and particulars and shall be forwarded to the dealer by RPAD. 18.2 Over a period of time, we have noticed in many matters that the impugned order cancelling the registration of a dealer travels beyond the scope of the show cause notice. Many times, the dealer is taken by surprise when he gets to read in the order that the authority has relied upon some inspection report or spot visit report etc. If the authority wants to rely upon any particular piece of evid....