TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (9) TMI 112
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..... 4. A set of documents, along with an affidavit, has been placed on record by the CGST Department. Mr. Gibran Naushad, ld. Counsel for the CGST Department has shown to the Court that there were three opportunities for hearing which were given to the Petitioner vide two hearing notices. 5. For the first hearing on 16th January, 2025, an e-mail was sent to the registered e-mail address provided by the Petitioner. The e-mail dated 13th January, 2025, sent at 16:33 hrs to [email protected], which is the registered e-mail address of the Petitioner in the Goods and Services Tax (hereinafter, 'GST') portal has been placed on record. The second notice fixing the dates for personal hearing on 23rd January, 2025 and 29th January, 2025, was sent by e-mail to the same e-mail address i.e., [email protected] on 18th January, 2025 at 05:44 p.m. 6. The GST portal of the Petitioner is relevant and is extracted below: 7. A perusal of the above GST portal of the Petitioner would show that the Petitioner is a proprietary concern of Smt. Suman Mathur who has given the registered mobile number as '9910208368'. The registered e-mail address is '[email protected]'. 8. ....
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....per or by affixation. It is not in dispute that service can be effected by any one of the above modes under Section 169 of Act. However, ld. Counsel for the Petitioner raises an interesting issue under Section 169(2) that 'deemed service' only would be in case of service, which is under Section 169(1)(a), 169(1)(e) or 169(1)(f) of the Act in view of the terms 'tendered' or 'published' or 'affixed' being used in said subsection. The Petitioner's contention is that no 'deemed service' can be attributed where service is effected through the modes prescribed under the remaining sub-clauses. 33. Insofar as this argument is concerned, the Court has no doubt as to the fact that 'limitation' and 'service' are interlinked with each other. Therefore, the term issuance of an order has to be interpreted in the context of Section 169 of the Act and Rule 142 of the CGST Rules. Under the scheme of Section 169 of the Act the usual modes of service are stipulated and some modes of service are also construed as 'deemed service' under Section 169(2). The usual modes of service could be physical service, registered post, speed post, courier, email, uploading on the common portal, aff....
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....x (India)(supra) cannot be applied to the facts in the present case, since the case in hand pertains to allegations of fraudulent availment of Input Tax Credit (hereinafter, 'ITC'). The impugned order contains the record of a long drawn investigation over a period of time which led to the confirmation of tax demand of ITC amounting to Rs. 81,54,990/-. 20. Another decision relied upon by the Petitioner is W.P. No. 33164 of 2023 titled Titan Company Ltd. v. Joint Commissioner of GST & Central Excise. In the said case, the issue of bunching of Show Cause Notices (SCNs) was considered by the Madras High Court and the Court was of the opinion that under Section 73, Central Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017, bunching of SCNs would not be permissible. 21. Heard. This Court has, in the past, considered several orders-in original involving demands on the ground of allegations of fraudulent availment of ITC and has held that there are several factual issues in such cases, which would need to be looked into, which cannot be adjudicated in a writ petition. In the decision of W.P.(C) 4853/2025 titled Ambika Traders through Proprietor v. Additional Commissioner, Adjudication, DGGSTI, CGST De....
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....n (1) of section 73, subject to the condition that the grounds relied upon in the said statement, except the ground of fraud, or any wilful-misstatement or suppression of facts to evade tax, for periods other than those covered under sub-section (1) are the same as are mentioned in the earlier notice." 44. Some of the other provisions of the CGST Act, which are relevant, include Section 2(106) of the CGST Act, which defines "tax period" as under: "2.[...] (106) "tax period" means the period for which the return is required to be furnished" 45. Thus, Sections 74(3), 74(4), 73(3) and 73(4) of the CGST Act use the term "for any period" and "for such periods". This would be in contrast with the language used in Sections 73(10) and 74(10) of the CGST Act where the term "financial year" is used. The said provisions read as under: "73.[...] (10) The proper officer shall issue the order under sub-section (9) within three years from the due date for furnishing of annual return for the financial year to which the tax not paid or short paid or input tax credit wrongly availed or utilised relates to or within three years from the date of erroneous refund" ....
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....s, businesses who have in fact utilized or availed of ITC through nonexistent supplies/purchases, fake firms and non-existent entities. The ultimate beneficiary of the ITC in the most cases may not even be the persons in whose name the GST registration is obtained. Businesses, individuals, and entities have charged commissions for passing on ITC. In several cases, it has also been noticed that the persons in whose name the GST registration stands are in fact domestic helps, drivers, employees, etc., of businessmen who are engaged on salary and who may not even be aware that their identities are being misused. In the above decision, the Court has fully considered the statutory scheme as also the legislative history of the GST Act and held that in cases relating to availment of Input Tax Credit, considering the maze of transactions and due to the fact that the transactions may be spread over several years, issuance of a consolidated notice for multiple Financial Years would be permissible and tenable. 22. Thus, this Court is of the opinion that in cases involving allegations of fraudulent availment of ITC, where the transactions are spread across several years, a consolidated n....