Calcutta High Court Quashes GST Adjudication Order, Orders Fresh Hearing

The Calcutta High Court has quashed the order passed by adjudication and has referred the GST case to be decided afresh because the respondent has not been provided a proper chance to reply to the Show Cause Notice.

Petitioners raised an objection against the order dated 28 April 2026, made under Sections 107 of the West Bengal Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, and the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.

It is claimed that a show-cause notice was sent by them, asking them to explain why taxes, along with interest and penalties, cannot be levied on them. It is also alleged that they are unaware of the notice because the same was uploaded only in the Additional Notice & Order on the GST portal.

It is to be noted that the petitioners also made the point that they got to know about the order of adjudication, which was issued on 6 August 2024, only through an email for recovery of 18 February 2026.

After considering both sides as well as the documents, the Court observed that the petitioners were unable to obtain the show-cause notice or submit a reply thereto. The Court further observed that it was necessary, in accordance with natural justice, that the petitioners should be given a chance to state their side.

The court ordered the petitioners to respond to the show cause notice within a period of four weeks for the financial year 2019-2020 and also ordered the tax officials to consider the petitioners’ response within eight weeks and hold a personal hearing with the petitioners and make an order on merits and notify them of the same within a week after that.

Accordingly, the Court has set aside the challenged orders dated 28 April 2026 and the order of adjudication dated 6 August 2024.

Thus, by making these orders, the writ petition was disposed of. The court further held that since an affidavit was not sought, the allegations in the writ petition were considered as denied. No order as to cost was made.