Order Date – 22 December 2022

Facts – 

• The Petitioner, 2 B Trade links, was served with Ext.P2 show cause notice on 02.09.2021 proposing to cancel the registration of the petitioner for non-filing of returns for a period of six months.
• The petitioner had filed returns for the defaulted period but did not file any appeal under Section 107 against Ext.P3 order of cancellation. The petitioner also did not file any application for revocation of the order of cancellation within the time prescribed under Section 30 of the CGST / SGST Acts.

Issue – 

• Whether the cancellation of registration is within the jurisdiction or not?

Order – 

• The Hon’ble High Court held that the issuing Ext.P1 order is clearly without jurisdiction. If the Officer wishes to initiate proceedings for cancellation of registration, he must issue a notice as specified in Rule 21 of the CGST Rules and in form GST REG-17 and not in form GST REG-31.
• It was also found that the show cause notice was woefully inadequate inasmuch as it did not specify the reasons which compelled the Officer to initiate action for cancellation of registration. 
• Hence the writ petition is allowed by directing the petitioner to file all defaulted returns within a period of two weeks.