No opportunity of being heard provided before rejecting ITC refund- Quashed by Madras High Court
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Case Details: |
Tvl. Naggaraj Anooradha vs. State Tax Officer (Circle) |
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Appeal No.: |
W.P. No. 174 of 2021 & WMP nos. 239/240 of 2021 |
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Order pronounced by: |
Madras High Court |
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Date of order: |
08-07-2021 |
Brief Facts:
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The petitioner is registered under GST Act. He has made a claim for refund of ITC, in respect of which a deficiency memo had been raised by the department calling for documents in support of the claim. |
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The petitioner again filed e-application for refund. This was followed by a show cause notice proposing rejection of refund stating that there was a mismatch between the export value and the net ITC when compared to monthly returns. The petitioner responded to the show cause notice enclosing copies of the export invoices, inward supply bills and bank realisation statements. However, the claim of ITC refund in case of the petitioner was rejected. |
Observations of The Hon’ble High Court:
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The case of the petitioner is that two invoices relating to the month of March, 2020 had been inadvertently omitted to be taken into account and this would account of the mismatch. Had a personal hearing been afforded to the petitioner, this point would have been explained. Thus, the impugned order has come to be passed without affording an opportunity of personal hearing. |
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Moreover, the impugned order is non-speaking. In fact, there is a column available for reasons on the basis of which the claim has been either accepted or rejected. However, this column in the impugned order is conspicuously blank and no reasons have been adduced for the rejection of the request. |
Order:
Bearing in mind the violation of principles of natural justice, the impugned order of rejection is set aside. The respondent shall pass an order of adjudication on the request of refund within 4 weeks from the date of personal hearing, in accordance with law.
