Order date: 20 September 2022

Facts

• The Petitioner, Sheetal Dilip Jain, was issued a show cause notice dated 02 March 2022 wherein a period of 7 days was given to respond and on the 8th day the impugned order was passed.
• Petitioner contended that no time is prescribed, but since under Sections 73(8) of MGST Act, a period of 30 days of issue of show-cause notice is given to a person chargeable with tax under sub-section (1) or sub-section (3) of Section 73 to pay the amount, the show-cause notice should provide minimum 30 days to file a reply.
• Respondent states that minimum 15 days should have been given.

Issue

• Whether time limit granted to reply to the show cause notice for 7 days is valid?

Order 

• The Authorities agreed with the contention of the Petitioner because section 73(8) permits a person chargeable with tax under sub-section (1) or sub-section (3) a period of 30 days from issuance of the show-cause notice to make payment of such tax along with interest payable under Section 50. If he does not wish to make payment, then within the 30 day period he could file a reply to the show-cause  notice.
• Hence, this statutory period cannot be arbitrarily reduced to 7 days by assessing officer.
• Further, High Court held that these acts/omissions of Respondents’ officers is adding to the already overburdened dockets of the Court.
• Hence, Court directed Respondents to pay a sum of Rs.10,000/- as donation to PM Cares Fund.