Inordinate Delay in Adjudication: High Court's Stance on Quashing Show Cause Notices

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....use notice issued by the Customs authorities on May 16, 2008, alleging clandestine clearance of import assignments without payment of appropriate duty. The petitioner filed responses to the notice in October and December 2008. However, despite several hearings scheduled between December 2008 and February 2021, no effective hearing took place, and the show cause notice remained pending adjudication....

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....rt Inordinate and Unexplained Delay The court found the delay between 2008 and 2021 to be inordinate and unexplained. The respondents' affidavit did not provide any reasonable explanation for the delay in adjudication. Reliance on Precedents The court relied on several Division Bench decisions of the Bombay High Court, which held that when faced with such inordinate and unexplained delay, ....

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.... a show cause notice issued in 2008 at this point would undoubtedly prejudice the petitioner's establishment's economics. Analysis and Decision by the Court Considering the inordinate and unexplained delay, the court quashed and set aside the impugned show cause notice dated May 16, 2008, and restrained the respondents from proceeding further based on it. Doctrine or Legal Principle Dis....