TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (9) TMI 634
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....-show cause notice dated 14.08.2025, issued by the Assistant Director, DGGI, Guwahati Zonal Unit, whereby proceedings have been initiated against the petitioner for the financial years 2021-2022 to 2024-2025. The further challenge concerns the search and seizure order dated 01.02.2024, INS-02, and all actions taken in consequence thereof. 3. The principal grounds of challenge are that the search conducted on 01.02.2024 under section 67 of the Central Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017, (for short the CGST Act), was without valid authorization and without the requisite reasons to believe; the search proceedings were not compliant with the requirement of DIN; the proceedings should not have been initiated without recourse to section 61; and t....
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.... account the payment of Rs. 300,000 made by the petitioner through DRC-03 on 22-02-2024. 7. The first argument that the charge stands vitiated for want of authorization, and therefore is void ab initio, can not be accepted in view of the pleading in the writ petition regarding the existence of FORM GST-INS- 01 dated 01.02.2024. 8. The petitioner, however, submits that the reasons to believe on the basis of which the authorization was issued were never furnished to it. 9. Section 67(2) empowers the proper officer, where reasons to believe that the circumstances specified therein exist, to authorize an officer in writing to conduct the search. Rule 139(1) of the GST rules prescribes FORM GST-INS-01 for such authorization. The require....
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....t proceeding shall necessarily abide by the findings on that aspect. 12. Now, coming to the challenge based on the absence of DIN, it is recorded herein that the CBIC Circular No. 122/41/2019-GST dated 05.11.2019 prescribed a mandatory DIN for specified communications, including search authorization. Subsequent Circular No. 128-47-2009-GST dated 23-12-2019 prescribed the consequences thereof, subject to the exception and regularization contemplated by the circulars. 13. The fact that the impugned show-cause notice bears a DIN does not answer the objection relating to the absence of a DIN in the search authorization. However, the issue is that those communications requiring DIN bore such a number or fell within any of the permissible e....
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....during the investigation, the entries in the Garage Plug software, Slip Pads, and other records and information obtained from third parties. 18. In the facts of the present case, in the opinion of this court, the demand is founded on Section 67, and therefore, the absence of proceedings under Section 61 does not invalidate the notice. 19. As a caution, this court records here that, in the event that any particular component of the proposed demand is founded solely upon a discrepancy detected in scrutiny proceedings under Section 61, the statutory requirements applicable thereto shall have to be complied with. This aspect can appropriately be examined in the adjudication itself. 20. A challenge to a show-cause notice covering financ....
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....on 75(13) is given full effect and that the same act or omission is not subjected to a double penalty, contrary to the statutory prohibition. 26. Coming to the allegation of non-disclosure of any suppression, fraud, and willful misstatement in the Notice, it is clear that the notice proceeds on the basis that certain taxable supplies were not disclosed in returns and such non-disclosure was deliberate. The materials relied upon include business records, the garage plug software, slip pads, statements recorded during the investigation, and information obtained from other persons. Whether these materials establish suppression-fraud or willful misstatement and whether the quantification of alleged suppressed turnover is correct are essentia....