TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (9) TMI 51
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....olly without jurisdiction, mechanical and illegal; B. This Hon'ble Court may be pleased to issue a writ of mandamus or writ in the nature of mandamus or any other appropriate writ or order quashing and setting aside impugned notice dated 4.6.2022 (annexed at Annexure F) as being non-speaking, mechanical and illegal; C. This Hon'ble Court may be pleased to issue writ of mandamus or writ in the nature of mandamus or any other appropriate writ or order directing the Respondents to forthwith restore the registration certificate of the Petitioner under the GST Acts; D. This Hon'ble Court may be pleased to issue writ of mandamus or writ in the nature of mandamus or any other appropriate writ or order directing the Respondents to withdraw notices issued to buyers of the Petitioner under Section 73/74 of the GST Acts on the basis of cancellation of registration certificate of the Petitioner; E. Pending notice, admission and final hearing of this petition, this Hon'ble Court may be pleased to restore the registration certificate of the Petitioner under the GST Acts and in any case restrain the Respondents from undertaking further proceedings against buyers of the Petitioner on the b....
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....er that no prior intimation was given to the petitioner before spot visit despite the fact that E-mail address as well as mobile phone number of the proprietor were available with the respondent authorities. 2.7 It is also the case of the petitioner that the petitioner was traveling abroad from 01.06.2022 to 13.06.2022, and therefore, could not respond to the show-cause notice which was issued on 04.06.2022. Subsequent to the issuance of the show-cause notice, the respondent authority passed an ex-parte order dated 16.06.2022 cancelling the Registration Certificate of the petitioner with effect from 16.02.2018. 2.8 Thereafter, the petitioner applied for revocation of cancellation certificate. The respondent authority, issued a show-cause notice dated 20.06.2022 which was served physically to proprietor of the petitioner, proposing to reject the revocation application on the ground that the principal place of business has been vacated by the petitioner. Reply was filed by the petitioner on 23.06.2022 giving specific reasons contending that it was merely a procedural error on part of the petitioner for not deleting the place of business at Ahmedabad, as the petitioner has continued....
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..... Learned advocate Mr. Uchit Sheth for the petitioner, while assailing the impugned orders, has made the following submissions: 4.1 That no hearing was granted to the petitioner before passing appeal order and also no reasons have been assigned for rejecting the submissions of the petitioner, and therefore, the impugned appeal order is passed in breach of principles of natural justice. 4.2 Relying on decision of this Court in the case of Agarwal Dyeing & Printing Works vs. State of Gujarat., reported in (2022) 107 GSTR 406 (Guj)., it was submitted that in view of this decision, the clause of the GST Rules alleged to be breached was contrary to the facts of the present petition and thus not applicable in the present case. 4.3 It was submitted that the only error committed by the petitioner was non-filing of application for deletion of place of business at Ahmedabad after expiry of lease period and shifting of business to Junagadh which, according to the petitioner, was only a procedural lapse with no tax implication, and therefore, there was retrospective cancellation of registration certificate on the basis of procedural lapse thereby invalidating all the valid transactions unde....
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....nd Printing Works (supra). No other and further submissions have been canvassed by the learned advocates appearing for the respective parties. 7. Having considered the judgement delivered by this Court in the case of Agarwal Dyeing and Printing Works (supra), in our considered opinion, the Coordinate Bench of this Court has discussed the law with regard to show cause notice as well as the importance of the principles of natural justice in great detail, which can thus be reproduced as under for the sake of brevity: "10. Thus, upon appreciation of the scheme of Act, where specific forms have been prescribed at each stage right from registration, cancellation and revocation of cancellation of registration, the same are to be strictly adhered too. At the same time, it is equally important that the Proper Officer empowered under the said Act adheres to the principles of natural justice. 11. At the outset, we notice that it is settled legal position of law that reasons are heart and soul of the order and non communication of same itself amounts to denial of reasonable opportunity of hearing, resulting in miscarriage of justice. This Court is bound by the said judgments hereinafter r....
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....f law and constitutional governance is in favour of reasoned decisions based on relevant facts. This is virtually the life blood of judicial decision making justifying the principle that reason is the soul of justice. i. Judicial or even quasi-judicial opinions these days can be as different as the judges and authorities who deliver them. All these decisions serve one common purpose which is to demonstrate by reason that the relevant factors have been objectively considered. This is important for sustaining the litigants' faith in the justice delivery system. j. Insistence on reason is a requirement for both judicial accountability and transparency. k. If a Judge or a quasi-judicial authority is not candid enough about his/her decision making process then it is impossible to know whether the person deciding is faithful to the doctrine of precedent or to principles of incrementalism. l. Reasons in support of decisions must be cogent, clear and succinct. A pretence of reasons or rubber stamp reasons' is not to be equated with a valid decision making process. m. It cannot be doubted that transparency is the sine qua non of restraint on abuse of judicial powers. Trans....
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....n 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 the reproduction of either of the reasons provide under rules regarding cancellation of registration. It appears from the materials on record that the respondent No. 2 issued a show-cause notice dated 18th September, 2018 in the Form GST REG-17, calling upon the writ-applicant to show-cause as to why the registration under the GST should not be cancelled. Such notice issued by the respondent No. 2 is under Rule 22(1) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017. 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....