Extension Granted for Reply to GST Show Cause Notice After Appeal is Withdrawal

Issue: Whether an assessee, having unsuccessfully challenged a show cause notice in a writ petition and subsequently withdrawing an intra-court appeal, is entitled to an extension of time to respond to the show cause notice, and whether the time spent in litigation should be excluded.

Facts:

The assessee challenged a show cause notice through a writ petition, which was unsuccessful.
The assessee filed an intra-court appeal against the writ petition order.
During the appeal hearing, the assessee sought permission to withdraw the appeal.
The assessee also requested an extension of time to submit a reply to the show cause notice.
The assessee wished to pursue the statutory remedy of replying to the show cause notice.

Decision:

The court granted the assessee’s request to withdraw the intra-court appeal.
Recognizing that the assessee intended to pursue the statutory remedy, the court acknowledged the time spent in litigation.
The court directed that the time spent during the pendency of the writ petition and the intra-court appeal be excluded from the time allowed for responding to the show cause notice.
The court extended the time for submitting a reply to the show cause notice by sixty days from the date of receipt of the server copy of the judgment.
The appeal was dismissed as withdrawn.
The decision was partly in favor of the assessee, as they received an extension of time.

HIGH COURT OF CALCUTTA

Britannia Industries Ltd.

Union of India

T.S. SIVAGNANAM, CJ.
and Hiranmay Bhattacharyya, J.

MAT No.2371 of 2024
IA No.CAN 1 of 2024

JANUARY 13, 2025

Abhratosh Majumdar, Sr. Adv., B.L. Narasimhan, Rahul Tangri, Pratyush Jhunjhunwala, Deepro Sen and Ms. Tania Roy for the Appellant. Vipul Kundalia and Jasojeet Mukherjee for the Respondent.

ORDER

1. This intra-Court appeal by the writ petitioner is directed against the order dated 23.12.2024 in WPA 24534 of 2024. The writ petition was filed by the appellant challenging the show cause notice dated 3.8.2024 issued by the Adjudicating Authority.

2. The learned Single Bench opined that the appellant/assessee should exhaust the statutory remedies provided under the CGST Act, 2017 including submitting a detailed response to the show cause notice. Decisions were referred to in support of such contention and the challenge to the show cause notice was unsuccessful.

3. After we have elaborately heard Mr. Majumder, learned Senior Counsel for the appellant and at the conclusion of the argument the learned senior advocate, on instruction, submitted that the appellant may be permitted to withdraw the appeal and the time for submitting the reply to the show cause notice may be suitably extended. As could be seen that the writ petition was filed on 23.09.2024 and the matter was heard and the judgment was reserved on 09.12.2024 and the judgment was pronounced on 24.12.2024 and immediately thereafter, the present appeal has been filed. Since the appellant seeks to pursue the statutory remedy by submitting the reply to the show cause notice, the time spent during the pendency of the writ petition as well as the date from which this appeal was filed till it is disposed by this order, has to be excluded. Instead of making an arithmetical calculation in this regard, we extend the time for submitting the reply to the show cause notice by a period of sixty days from the date of receipt of the server copy of this judgment and order. It is made clear that the Court has not gone into the merits of the matter and it will be well open to the appellant/assessee to canvass all points before the Adjudicating Authority.

4. On perusal of the impugned order passed by the learned Single Bench we find that the learned Single Bench has also not gone into the facts but to make things clear, even assuming that there were certain observations made by the learned Single Bench touching upon the facts, those observations stand deleted and the appellant/assessee would be entitled to raise all contentions, both factual and legal, before the Adjudicating Authority.

5. In the light of the above order extending the time for submitting the reply to the show cause notice, the hearing which was fixed by the Adjudicating Authority, shall stand deferred.

6. Accordingly, the appeal and the connected application are dismissed as withdrawn.