TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (2) TMI 1261
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....Megha Bajoria. ORAL JUDGMENT (PER : G.S. KULKARNI, J.):- 1. This petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India challenges the Order-in-Original dated 5th February 2025 issued by Respondent No. 3 primarily on the ground that it is against the principles of natural justice and more particularly the same having passed without furnishing to the Petitioner the copies of verification reports. At the outset, the prayers made in the petition are required to be noted, which read thus : "a. this Hon'ble Court be pleased to issue a Writ of Certiorari or a writ in the nature of Certiorari or any other writ, order or direction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India calling for the records pertaining to the Petitioners....
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....it from existing laws to the GST regime. The Petitioner is stated to have filed GST TRAN-1 and GST TRAN-2 declarations for transition of input credit to the electronic credit ledger on 17th November 2017. On such backdrop, some time in February-2018, the Respondent no. 2 initiated an audit for verification of the transition of CANVAT credit being availed by the Petitioner while being transitioned to the GST regime under Section 140 of the CGST Act read with Rule 117 of CGST Rules. Extensive correspondence ensued between the Petitioner and the officers of Respondent no. 2 during the period from February-2018 to December-2021. In such correspondence, the Petitioner has stated to have furnished all the documents as required by Respondent no....
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....f the Petitioner's Manager, Indirect Taxes to Respondent No. 3. 5. On 13th January 2025 the Petitioner submitted its detailed reply to the show cause notice and justified the transitions of input tax credit. Pursuant to an understanding with the Petitioner, the Respondent No. 3 deputed his officers for verification of invoices and records for adjudication of show cause notice. Upon verification of records, verification reports dated 27th January 2025 and 3rd February 2025 were prepared. It is the Petitioner's contention that such verification reports were required to be furnished to the Petitioner, however, this was not done. The Petitioner hence, by its letters demanded copies of verification reports so that the show cause notice can be....
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.... is clear from the record that merely for the reason that there was a time crunch and workload, the concerned officers were not willing to look into the record. Such contention as urged on behalf of the Petitioner is also recorded in the impugned order by the concerned officer, which according to Mr. Shah would go to show that the Petitioner was always ready and willing to furnish, and in fact, it furnished, all the details in regard to transition of input tax credit. Our attention is also drawn to paragraph 14.1(ii) (internal page 17 of the impugned order), wherein the following observations are made : Column (8) in Table 7(6) : Amount involved in SCN is Rs. 7,39,49,256/- : "... ... ... The taxpayer have carried forward o....
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....the impugned order is passed. Mr. Shah also draws our attention to the following observations (internal page 19 of the impugned order), in para vii(i), which read thus : "(i) All the invoices could not be verified due to stock declared by the tax payer is very high. Therefore, as per the guidelines given in the Circular 182/14/2-22-GST, taxpayer is required to produce stock declared in VAT return or any other collateral documents where stocks were declared to cross checked the stocks held on the appointed day. However, the taxpayer not provide any of the said documents so that the stocks can be verified from the stocks of Tran-1 credit till 21.1.2025. Therefore, credit amounting to Rs. 13,73,64,064/- appears to be ineligible." ....
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....s. On perusal of the impugned order, we are also inclined to agree with Mr. Shah that the entire exercise to pass the impugned order, was a hurried exercise, ex facie without verification of the entire record/invoices and other documents as noted in the impugned order. We fail to understand as to why such hasty actions would at all be resorted to by the concerned officials, upon whom an onerous duty is cast to pass an order only on complete verification of the record and in accordance with law. 12. Considering all these circumstances, we find substance in the contentions as urged on behalf of the Petitioner that it will be appropriate that a fresh process of a hearing, being granted to the Petitioner on the show cause notice needs to be ....