Full Judgment Text
$~62
* IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
% Date of decision: 28.04.2022
+ W.P.(C) 6740/2022
M/S NTT INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED (FORMERLY KNOWN AS
DIMENSION DATA INDIA PVT. LTD.) ..... Petitioner
Through: Mr Puneet Agarwal with Ms Purvi
Sinha, Mr Ketan Jain, Ms Hemlata
Rawat, Mr Chetan K. Shukla and Mr
Ayushman Vatsyayana, Advocates.
versus
UNION OF INDIA & ORS. ..... Respondents
Through: Mr Chiranjiv Kumar with Mr Mukesh
Sachdeva, Advocates for respondent
no.1/UOI. Mr Anuj Aggarwal, ASC
with Mr Sanyam Suri, Ms Ayushi Bansal
and Ms Aishwarya Sharma,
Advocates for respondents no.2 and 4.
CORAM:
HON'BLE MR JUSTICE RAJIV SHAKDHER
HON’BLE MR JUSTICE MANOJ KUMAR OHRI
[Physical Hearing/Hybrid Hearing (as per request)]
RAJIV SHAKDHER, J.: (ORAL)
CM APPL. 20460/2022
1. Allowed, subject to just exceptions.
W.P.(C) 6740/2022 & CM APPL. 20459/2022 [Application filed on behalf of
the petitioner seeking interim relief]
2. Issue notice.
2.1. Mr Chiranjiv Kumar accepts notice on behalf of respondent no.1/UOI.
2.2. Mr Anuj Aggarwal accepts notice on behalf of respondent nos.2 and
4/revenue.
3. With the consent of the counsels for the parties, the writ petition is taken
Signature Not Verified
Signed By:VIPIN KUMAR RAI
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up for hearing and final disposal, at this stage itself.
4. The substantial prayers made in the writ petition are as follows:
“i. To issue an appropriate writ, order, or direction to
Respondents to quash and set aside impugned order dated
24.07.2021 [Annexure P/19] : and/or
ii. Issuance of appropriate writ, order or direction for quashing
and setting aside impugned show cause notice and summary of
show cause notice in Form DRC-01 [Annexure P/18] ; and/or
iii. Issuance of appropriate writ, order or direction for quashing
and setting aside impugned notice issued in Form ASMT-10
[Annexure P/17] ; and/or
iv. Issuance of appropriate writ, order or direction for quashing
and set aside of the impugned proceedings; and/or
v. Issuance of appropriate writ, order or direction to Respondent
no. 4 for deciding the Application for Rectification under section
161 of the DGST Act dated 24.03.2022 [Annexure P/23(Colly)] ;
and/or
vi. to stay the operation of the Impugned Order dated 24.07.2021
and prohibit the Respondent from taking any coercive steps
against the Petitioner till the final disposal of the present Writ
Petition: and/or
vii. to grant costs of this Petition…”
4.1. At the outset, Mr Puneet Agarwal, who appears on behalf of the
petitioner, says that he does not wish to press prayer clause (vii), which relates
to costs.
5. The principal grievance of the petitioner is that via the impugned order
dated 24.07.2021, respondent no.4, i.e., the Assistant Commissioner, DGST has
raised a demand concerning tax amounting to Rs. 18.06 crores along with
interest and 100% penalty on account of the purported difference between the
contents of two returns i.e., GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B.
5.1. According to Mr Puneet Agarwal, the difference arose on account of one
invoice, which was inadvertently not filed with the return [i.e., GSTR-3B]
submitted for March 2019.
5.2. Mr Puneet Agarwal says that the error was corrected in the subsequent
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return filed for April 2019.
6. It is Mr Puneet Agarwal’s contention that the requisite tax, along with
interest, has been deposited in line with the respondents/revenue’s own circular
dated 29.12.2017. (See page 56 of the case file.)
6.1. It is, therefore, contended by Mr Puneet Agarwal that if this aspect is
taken into account i.e., that the petitioner corrected the error in April 2019,
almost nothing will be payable by the petitioner, insofar as the tax and interest
are concerned.
7. Mr Anuj Aggarwal, who appears on behalf of the respondents no.2 and
4/revenue, says that the concerned officer will examine the contentions raised
by the petitioner, along with the necessary documents filed in support of the
contentions.
7.1. It is Mr Anuj Aggarwal’s submission that if the concerned officer is
satisfied, requisite directions will be issued.
7.2. It is further stated that in case there is difficulty in uploading the orders
on the web portal, orders will be passed by the concerned authority in the
manual mode.
8. The writ petition is accordingly disposed of, with the following
directions:
(i) The contentions raised by the petitioner in the writ petition will be
examined by the concerned officer by treating it as representation.
(ii) The concerned officer will grant opportunity of hearing to the authorised
representative of the petitioner. For this purpose, the concerned officer will
communicate the date, time and venue of at which hearing will be granted. In
case it is not possible to conduct the hearing physically, a link will be sent for
hearing via video-conferencing mechanism.
(iii) Pending the disposal of the representation, no precipitate action will be
taken against the petitioner in pursuance of the impugned order dated
29.12.2017.
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Signed By:VIPIN KUMAR RAI
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(iv) The concerned officer will furnish a copy of the decision rendered on the
petitioner’s representation, to the petitioner.
(v) In the event the decision arrived at by the concerned officer is adverse to
the interest of the petitioner, no precipitate action will be taken for two weeks
from the date of receipt of the copy of the decision by the petitioner.
(vi) Needless to add, the concerned officer will endeavour to dispose of the
petitioner’s representation, which is in the form of the writ petition filed before
us, expeditiously, though not later than six weeks from the date of receipt of the
order.
9. Consequently, the pending application shall stand closed.
10. Before we conclude, we may also like to bring to the notice of the
Department of Revenue that the orders which are passed carry endorsement
which are spread right across the pages on which they are transcribed, making it
difficult to read the orders.
10.1. In fact, this kind of endorsement will also make it difficult for persons
who are visually impaired to read the orders, as their applications may not be
able to pick up the contents of the order due to the endorsement made on it.
Such endorsement or mark could be affixed on the order where there is no
writing; the space ordinarily available on the left or right-hand side corner of the
order or at the foot of the order would perhaps serve the purpose.
11. Accordingly, we request Mr Anuj Aggarwal to place the order passed by
us, before the CEO of Goods and Service Tax Network.
(RAJIV SHAKDHER)
JUDGE
(MANOJ KUMAR OHRI)
JUDGE
APRIL 28, 2022/ tr
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Signed By:VIPIN KUMAR RAI
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