Goods and Services Tax

Reasoned adjudication requires consideration of replies; order quashed for non-application of mind and fresh hearing permitted.
Case-Laws
GST
An adjudication order confirming a demand under a show cause notice cannot stand where the authority fails to consider the taxpayer's replies and gives no cogent reasons for rejection. The High Court found complete non-application of mind because the order relied on an unexplained assumption that the matter was sub judice on merits, did not identify the supplies treated as taxable or tax-free after considering the circulars cited, and omitted discussion of all replies. The impugned order was quashed, with liberty to proceed afresh on the notice after considering all replies and granting a fresh hearing.
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Natural justice in writ jurisdiction: non-speaking GST demand order set aside despite availability of appeal.
Case-Laws
GST
Writ jurisdiction remained available despite an appellate remedy because the challenge alleged violation of natural justice through a non-speaking order. The High Court held that the alternative remedy rule is not absolute and does not bar writ intervention where reasons are absent, jurisdiction is lacking, vires is questioned, or fundamental rights are implicated. Here, the adjudicating authority had noted receipt of the reply but failed to deal with its contents or the supporting documents, and gave no reasons for rejection. The GST demand order was therefore set aside as a non-speaking order, and the matter was remitted for fresh adjudication after personal hearing and a reasoned decision.
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Writ jurisdiction cannot bypass mandatory pre-deposit once the GSTAT is functional and appeals are available.
Case-Laws
GST
Writ jurisdiction is not meant to bypass the statutory appeal mechanism when the GSTAT has become functional and a notified period for filing appeals is available. Although writ relief may be entertained where the appellate forum is non-functional to avoid leaving an aggrieved party remediless, that rationale ends once the forum is operational. The Court held that the assessee must pursue the statutory appeal and strictly comply with the mandatory pre-deposit requirement under Section 112(8) before the appeal can be entertained. The writ petition was disposed of with directions to deposit the requisite amount and file the appeal within the notified timeline, leaving the merits of the appellate order open.
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Writ relief against show cause notices is available where jurisdiction is absent and concluded advance rulings cannot be reopened without fresh fraud evidence.
Case-Laws
GST
Writ jurisdiction may be exercised against show cause notices where the notice is alleged to be without jurisdiction, pre-determined, or abusive, even if alternative statutory remedies exist. The Court treated the challenge as one to the very assumption of power and rejected objections of prematurity and disputed facts. It further held that advance rulings are binding on the applicant and jurisdictional officer unless law or facts change, and that reopening the same issues requires fresh material showing fraud, wilful misstatement, or suppression. As no such material existed and the earlier adjudication had attained finality, the notices under the GST and excise laws were held to be without jurisdiction and quashed.
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GST refund rejection without deficiency memo was invalid; fresh consideration ordered under prescribed refund procedure.
Case-Laws
GST
An ex parte rejection of a GST refund claim without a deficiency memo and without affording a hearing was procedurally invalid, so the refund application had to be reconsidered in the manner prescribed by the rules. The Court noted that a subsequent refund application had been filed, a deficiency memo had been issued on that application, and it was required to be taken to its logical conclusion rather than denied on a pedantic view. The designated officer was directed to decide the refund application and related applications afresh under Rules 90 and 92, uninfluenced by the earlier rejection order or the appellate dismissal on limitation, with merits left open.
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Grounds of arrest must be furnished as required by law; defective arrest memo cannot sustain detention or remand.
Case-Laws
GST
Non-provision of the grounds of arrest in the manner required by law rendered the arrest and continued detention unsustainable. The High Court held that the respondents' explanation of clerical error did not cure the decisive defect, because the petitioner had not been furnished the grounds of arrest as mandated by the Supreme Court and followed by the Court. As that requirement was not complied with, the remand order founded on the arrest was liable to be quashed. The remand order was quashed, the writ petition was allowed, and the respondents were given liberty to proceed afresh in accordance with law.
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GST registration cancellation set aside for mismatch between show cause notice and final order, with non-application of mind found.
Case-Laws
GST
HC held that cancellation of GST registration could not stand where the show cause notice alleged only that the principal place of business was not found during a field visit, but the cancellation order relied on the different ground that no business was being conducted from the declared place of business. Because the decisive allegation was absent from the notice and the recorded reason was not traceable to the statutory grounds under Section 29 of the GST Act, the authority's conclusion was found to suffer from non-application of mind and to violate Article 14. The cancellation order and the consequential appellate order were quashed, with liberty to pass a fresh order in accordance with law.
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Condonation of delay in GST appeal: writ relief granted where filing was prevented by circumstances beyond the assessee's control.
Case-Laws
GST
Delay in filing a statutory GST appeal was condoned in writ jurisdiction where the assessee showed that non-filing within time was due to circumstances beyond its control. The Court held that, although the Appellate Authority is bound by the limitation under Section 107 of the RGST/CGST Act, refusal to permit consideration on merits in such circumstances would cause grave prejudice. The delay was therefore condoned and the Appellate Authority was directed to entertain and decide the appeal on merits. The challenge to the vires of Section 107(4) read with the notification was not pressed and was left open.
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Parity in bail and documentary evidence supported release where no custodial remand was sought.
Case-Laws
GST
Bail was considered in a prosecution alleging fraudulent availment and use of input tax credit and issuance of bogus invoices. The Court treated the evidence as mainly documentary, noted that no custodial remand had been sought, and accepted that the applicant's presence could be secured during trial. It also relied on the absence of criminal antecedents, the limited sentence exposure, the applicant's continued incarceration, his undertaking to cooperate, and parity with the co-accused, and therefore enlarged him on bail subject to conditions.
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Section 129 timelines are directory, not mandatory; delayed detention proceedings survive, while goods may be released on penalty deposit.
Case-Laws
GST
Section 129(3) was held to be directory as to the seven-day timelines for issuing notice and passing the penalty order, because the statute uses procedural deadlines to secure expedition but does not make delay fatal to jurisdiction or validity. The Court rejected the view that non-compliance automatically renders detention proceedings time-barred, and found no basis to interfere on limitation where the notice was issued within seven days and the penalty order followed on the eighth day, amounting to substantial compliance. The petitioner, being a registered dealer when the transaction began, was treated as the bona fide owner and was entitled to release of the detained goods and vehicle on deposit, under protest, of an amount equal to the penalty, with liberty to challenge the penalty order separately.
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Writ jurisdiction can condone delay in a statutory appeal when statutory limitation would cause grave prejudice.
Case-Laws
GST
Writ jurisdiction can be used to condone delay in filing a statutory appeal where the delay was shown to be beyond the appellant's control and refusal to hear the matter on merits would cause grave prejudice. Although the appellate authority lacked power to condone delay beyond the statutory limit under Section 107, the High Court followed its earlier Division Bench view and intervened to prevent injustice. The 84-day delay was therefore condoned, the time-bar dismissal was set aside, and the appellate authority was directed to entertain and decide the appeal on merits.
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Opposition in Maharashtra slams PM’s address to nation, calls it full of ‘false claims’
GST
Dated:- 19-4-2026
PTI
Mumbai, Apr 18 (PTI) The Opposition in Maharashtra on Saturday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation, alleging that it was filled with “false claims” and that he made no mention of delinking delimitation from women’s reservation.

Congress leaders Harshvardhan Sapkal and Nana Patole, NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar, and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi said the speech focused on attacking rivals.

Sapkal, who is the Maharashtra Congress president, claimed that it was filled with “propaganda” and “false claims” targeting the Congress.

In a statement, Sapkal said that instead of addressing key national issues, the PM devoted a significant portion of his speech to attacking the Congress.

Sapkal claimed that Modi mentioned Congress “58 times during his 30-minute address”, delivered a day after a bill t

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s.

He demanded that the PM apologise to women, accusing the BJP-led government of “misleading” them on reservation.

His colleague Nana Patole claimed that the reactions on social media during the PM’s address to the nation indicated widespread public dissatisfaction. “A majority of people” were critical of the prime minister, he claimed.

Referring to the issue of the women’s quota bill, Patole questioned the government’s handling of the matter, saying it had contributed to public anger. He claimed the PM looked “angry” during his address.

NCP (SP) general secretary and MLA Rohit Pawar said no one in the world is as skilled as the BJP at turning their defeats into political advantage.

“Today’s speech, which is miles away from the truth, looks like nothing but an attempt to cash in on yesterday’s defeat — trying to figure out whether they can still win power in the upcoming elections in Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal,” he alleged.

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eply disappointing to hear the PM make no assurance to the women of this country of delinking the 2023 Act from Census and Delimitation so as to make it implementable as passed by all parties in 2029 itself,” she said in a post on X.

Chaturvedi on Friday diverged from her party’s stand and rued the defeat of the Women's Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha, calling it a sad day for women who hoped to find themselves in Parliament or assemblies.

Modi on Saturday said opposition parties had “mercilessly crushed” the dreams of women by not allowing the women’s reservation bill to pass in Parliament despite the government’s best efforts.

In his address to the nation, a day after a bill to implement women’s reservation in legislatures was defeated in the Lok Sabha, Modi said the self-serving politics of parties like the Congress, the DMK, the TMC, and the Samajwadi Party had come at the expense of the nation's women.

He said the opposition parties had foiled efforts to

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CGST Delhi South Commissionerate unearths fraudulent availment of Input Tax Credit (ITC) of over Rs. 8 crore; director of company arrested
GST
Dated:- 18-4-2026

Continuing its enforcement drive against Input Tax Credit (ITC) frauds, the Anti-Evasion Branch of the Central Goods & Services Tax (CGST), Delhi South Commissionerate, has arrested a director of a company dealing in assorted items for fraudulent availment/utilisation of Input Tax Credit (ITC) of more than Rs. 8 crore in violation of Section 16 of the CGST Act, 2017.

Intelligence was developed through data-analytics that the taxpayer was involved in fraudulent availment/utilisation of ineligible ITC without underlying supply from the suppliers which were either suspe

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GST transit detention upheld where false e-way bill declaration and defective delivery challan justified penalty.
Case-Laws
GST
State GST officers in West Bengal were competent to intercept and detain goods in transit under the IGST Act, because section 4 operates as a deeming provision and no contrary notification was shown. The claim that West Bengal was only a transport corridor failed, as interception occurred within the State and the accompanying documents did not conclusively establish lawful transit. The Court also held that declaring a registered dealer as an unregistered person in the e-way bill, together with a delivery challan signed by an unauthorised person and not meeting Rules 55 and 138, amounted to actionable contraventions. Detention and penalty under section 129 were therefore sustained.
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Natural justice in ITC mismatch disputes requires consideration of reconciliation material before disallowance can be sustained.
Case-Laws
GST
An adjudication order alleging ineligible input tax credit on account of a mismatch between GSTR-3B and GSTR-2A could not stand where the authority failed to consider the reconciliation statement specifically furnished by the taxpayer and did not give an effective opportunity to explain the discrepancy. The HC held that, because the dispute was factual and the reply referred to reconciliation material in Annexure-1, the authority was required to re-examine that material before concluding that no reconciliation had been produced. The order was set aside and the matter remitted for fresh consideration after giving the taxpayer an opportunity to explain the ITC mismatch.
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Retrospective GST explanation and composite supply classification require fresh assessment after determining the true nature of supplies.
Case-Laws
GST
The HC held that Circular No. 163/19/2021-GST did not compel retrospective application of the explanation added to Sl. No. 234 of Notification No. 1/2017-Central Tax (Rate); any pre-01.01.2019 benefit was only optional, so the assessment was unsustainable to the extent it treated that explanation as mandatorily retrospective. It also found the authority had failed to determine the true nature of the supplies, namely whether they resulted in immovable property as works contract or constituted installation of movable goods under composite supply, and had not identified the turnover relatable to the period before 01.01.2019. The assessment was set aside and remanded for fresh consideration, leaving open the vires question.
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GST cross-empowerment and disputed classification must be challenged in appeal, not writ, where suppression is alleged.
Case-Laws
GST
State GST authorities may initiate intelligence-based enforcement action under the GST regime even where the taxpayer is administratively assigned to the Central administration, so the challenge to jurisdiction failed. Disputes over classification and the assessing authority's finding of suppression for invoking Section 74 involved disputed facts and could not be examined in writ jurisdiction, so those objections had to be pursued before the statutory appellate authority under Section 107. The writ court was therefore correct in directing the taxpayer to avail the appeal remedy while leaving all grounds, including jurisdiction, open before the appellate forum.
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No matter-of-right conversion of non-bailable warrants was established; fact-specific precedents created no conflict for Larger Bench review.
Case-Laws
GST
No binding conflict existed among the cited Single Bench orders on conversion of non-bailable warrants into bailable warrants, because each was decided on its own facts and none laid down a rule that an accused in an economic or heinous offence has a matter-of-right entitlement to conversion. One case concerned only the validity of non-bailable warrants and refusal of interim stay, another upheld refusal of conversion on its facts, and a third granted conversion through inherent jurisdiction on the overall circumstances. As no ratio emerged to require reference to a Larger Bench, the reference was left unanswered and the learned Single Judge was directed to decide the matter on its merits.
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Non-speaking GST cancellation and ignored condonation grounds vitiated both orders, leading to remand for fresh consideration.
Case-Laws
GST
GST registration cancellation could not stand where the original order was non-speaking and did not disclose the date, mode or manner of service of the show cause notice, despite service being disputed. Proceeding ex parte on an assumed service basis without recording those particulars rendered the cancellation order unsustainable, and it was set aside with remand for fresh decision after reply and hearing. The appellate order was also vitiated because the authority failed to consider the specific grounds for condonation of delay raised in the appeal memorandum and instead relied on assumptions not reflected in the appeal itself. That order too was set aside.
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Composite demand notices cannot force multiple appeals or extra pre-deposit for penalty arising from one adjudication order.
Case-Laws
GST
A single adjudication order creating tax and penalty liability cannot be split through separate DRC-07 notices so as to force multiple appeals or an additional pre-deposit toward penalty. The statutory appeal mechanism is satisfied by one appeal against the composite order on deposit of 10% of the disputed tax demand, without any further deposit at that stage for the penalty component. The Court permitted withdrawal of the two notices and issuance of a fresh composite DRC-07, and clarified that limitation for appeal would run from service of the fresh notice, with no further recovery pending compliance.
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Natural justice and reasoned condonation orders: assessment and appellate orders quashed for denying hearing and ignoring delay grounds.
Case-Laws
GST
An assessment order cannot be sustained where the authority fixes a personal hearing before the assessee's last available date to file a reply to the show cause notice, because that denies a fair opportunity of hearing; the HC quashed the original order and remitted the matter for fresh hearing and decision. An appellate order rejecting an appeal is equally invalid if it fails to consider a specific condonation of delay ground and give reasons on that request, even where rejection may ultimately be justified; the HC set aside the appellate order for non-consideration of the condonation plea.
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Jurisdictional defect in adjudication order vitiated tax decision, but fresh hearing remitted to competent authority.
Case-Laws
GST
An adjudication order was vitiated for want of jurisdiction because it was digitally signed by the Commercial Tax Officer, the power to pass the order lay with the Deputy Commissioner; the digital signature was treated as primary evidence of the decision-making authority, and the State's explanation that the order had been uploaded through another officer's dashboard was rejected. The Court, however, did not accept the assessee's objection on limitation, holding that the show cause notice had been issued by the competent authority and the assessee had participated in the proceedings, so a procedural defect at the stage of the order did not justify avoiding adjudication altogether. The order was set aside and the matter remitted for fresh decision by the Deputy Commissioner after hearing.
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Natural justice requires physical service of show cause notice after registration cancellation; adjudication set aside and remitted.
Case-Laws
GST
Where registration had already been cancelled, adjudication could continue only on physical service of the show cause notice because the taxpayer could not be expected to access the Common Portal; service merely by electronic upload was therefore inadequate. The absence of physical notice caused a substantial breach of natural justice and denied an effective opportunity to file objections and be heard. The HC accordingly set aside the adjudication order and remitted the matter for fresh adjudication after physical service of notice, supply of relied-upon documents, and grant of due hearing.
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Anti-profiteering in cinema ticket pricing: GST reduction had to be passed on, with interest only prospectively and no penalty.
Case-Laws
GST
Once GST was reduced, the seller remained under a statutory duty to pass on the benefit through commensurate price reduction, and regulated cinema ticket pricing did not displace scrutiny under anti-profiteering law. The Tribunal rejected reliance on Telangana cinema licensing orders and found no equitable relief because material facts had not been fully disclosed and the earlier High Court conditions were not shown to have been satisfied. It accepted the DGAP methodology, held that the base price should have been maintained after the tax cut, and found profiteering established. Interest was made recoverable only prospectively from 28.06.2019, while penalty was held inapplicable because the penalty provision came into force later.
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Rs 7 crore GST fraud unearthed in UP's Pilibhit; 13 fictitious firms detected
GST
Dated:- 17-4-2026
PTI
Pilibhit (UP), Apr 17 (PTI) An alleged fraud involving misuse of a GST ID to misappropriate funds worth around Rs 7 crore has been uncovered here, with police detecting 13 fake firms which were allegedly used to generate bogus bills, officials said on Friday.

According to police, the accused allegedly duped a local businessman on the pretext of arranging a bank loan and obtained his GST credentials before carrying out the fraudulent transactions.

The complainant, Mohammad Naeem, a resident of Mohalla Chhota Khudaganj and proprietor of Shahji Enterprises, runs a handpump installation and labour services business.

In

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