Gujarat High Court
Global Power Through Its Prop. ... vs The State Of Gujarat on 11 July, 2025
Author: Bhargav D. Karia
Bench: Bhargav D. Karia
NEUTRAL CITATION
C/SCA/2724/2025 ORDER DATED: 11/07/2025
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD
R/SPECIAL CIVIL APPLICATION NO. 2724 of 2025
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GLOBAL POWER THROUGH ITS PROP. MOHMEDABID MOHMEDHUSEN
LAKHANI
Versus
THE STATE OF GUJARAT & ORS.
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Appearance:
SAGAR J SHAH(9447) for the Petitioner(s) No. 1
MS SHRUNJAL SHAH, AGP for the Respondent(s) No. 1,2,3
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CORAM:HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE BHARGAV D. KARIA
and
HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE PRANAV TRIVEDI
Date : 11/07/2025
ORAL ORDER
(PER : HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE BHARGAV D. KARIA)
1. Heard learned advocate Mr.Sagar J. Shah for the petitioner and learned Assistant Government Pleader Ms.Shrunjal Shah for the respondents.
2. By this petition under Article 227 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner has challenged the order dated 30th July, 2021 passed by the respondent No.3-Assistant Commissioner, Ghatak 75, Bhavnagar cancelling Page 1 of 14 Uploaded by PALAK BRAHMBHATT(HC01391) on Tue Jul 15 2025 Downloaded on : Tue Jul 15 22:00:19 IST 2025 NEUTRAL CITATION C/SCA/2724/2025 ORDER DATED: 11/07/2025 undefined the GST Registration Certificate of the petitioner and the order dated 21.11.2024 passed by the respondent No.2-Deputy State Tax Commissioner, Bhavnagar dismissing the Appeal filed by the petitioner under Section 107 of the Gujarat Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 on ground of limitation.
3. The brief facts of the case are as under :
3.1. The petitioner is engaged in business of ship material trading by purchasing raw material from old ships and selling them in the market and is registered under the provisions of the Gujarat Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (for short 'the GST Act'). 3.2. The respondent No.3 issued a show-
cause notice dated 22.07.2021 for cancellation of the registration with following reasons : Page 2 of 14 Uploaded by PALAK BRAHMBHATT(HC01391) on Tue Jul 15 2025 Downloaded on : Tue Jul 15 22:00:19 IST 2025
NEUTRAL CITATION C/SCA/2724/2025 ORDER DATED: 11/07/2025 undefined "Issues any invoice or bill without supply of goods and/or services in violation of the provisions of this Act, or the rules made thereunder leading to wrongful availment or utilization of input tax credit or refund of tax." 3.3. The petitioner was directed to file the reply within the seven working days and appear on 30th July, 2021 before the respondent No.3.
3.4. It appears that the petitioner submitted reply on 30th July, 2021 online and without providing any opportunity of hearing, the respondent-Authority passed an ex-parte order dated 30th July, 2021 whereby, the effective date of cancellation of the registration was stated as 01.07.2017. Page 3 of 14 Uploaded by PALAK BRAHMBHATT(HC01391) on Tue Jul 15 2025 Downloaded on : Tue Jul 15 22:00:19 IST 2025
NEUTRAL CITATION C/SCA/2724/2025 ORDER DATED: 11/07/2025 undefined 4.1. Learned advocate Mr.Sagar Shah for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner has also filed an additional affidavit on 7th July, 2025 affirmed on 4th July, 2025 which reads as under :
"2. I state and submit that the petitioner is willing and ready to comply with the legal requirements by filing all the pending statutory returns and is further willing to discharge the liability arising therefrom, including tax, interest, penalty, and late fees, as computed in the calculation report.
3. That the petitioner undertakes to pay the aforesaid amounts, subject to verification and confirmation by the concerned respondent authority, without prejudice to the petitioner's rights and contentions in the present proceedings."
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NEUTRAL CITATION C/SCA/2724/2025 ORDER DATED: 11/07/2025 undefined 4.2. It was submitted that in view of the decision of this Hon'ble Court in case of M/s. Aggrawal Dyeing & Printing vs. State of Gujarat reported in (2022) 137 Taxmann.com 332 (Guj.), the respondent-Authority has failed to give any reason while issuing the show-cause notice and without considering the reply filed by the petitioner on 30th July, 2021, the order of cacellation or registration was passed.
4.3. It was submitted that the petitioner could not file the Appeal within the stipulated time period and therefore, the Appeal is also dismissed on the ground of delay.
4.4. It was therefore submitted that as held by this Court in case of M/s. Aggrawal Page 5 of 14 Uploaded by PALAK BRAHMBHATT(HC01391) on Tue Jul 15 2025 Downloaded on : Tue Jul 15 22:00:19 IST 2025 NEUTRAL CITATION C/SCA/2724/2025 ORDER DATED: 11/07/2025 undefined Dyeing (Supra), the matter may be remanded back to the respondent No.3 to pass a fresh de-novo order after considering the reply filed by the petitioner and in view of the additional affidavit filed by the petitioner before this Court along with the computation of tax, interest, penalty, etc., to be paid by the petitioner as may be directed by the respondent No.3 in accordance with law.
5. In view of the above submissions, it would be germane to refer to the guidelines issued by the Co-ordinate Bench of this Court in the case of M/s. Aggrawal Dyeing (Supra), which read as under :
"18. Our final conclusion are as under:
18.1. Until the Department is able to develop and upload an appropriate software in the portal which would Page 6 of 14 Uploaded by PALAK BRAHMBHATT(HC01391) on Tue Jul 15 2025 Downloaded on : Tue Jul 15 22:00:19 IST 2025 NEUTRAL CITATION C/SCA/2724/2025 ORDER DATED: 11/07/2025 undefined enable the Department to feed all the necessary information and material particulars in the show cause notice as well as in the final order of cancellation of registration that may be passed, the authority concerned shall issue an appropriate show cause notice containing all the necessary details and information in a physical form and forward the same to the dealer by RPAD.
In the same manner, when it comes to passing the final order, the same shall also be passed in a physical form containing all the necessary information and particulars and shall be forwarded to the dealer by RPAD.
18.2 Over a period of time, we have noticed in many matters that the impugned order cancelling the registration of a dealer travels beyond the scope of the show cause notice. Many times, the dealer is taken by surprise when he gets to read in the order that the authority has relied upon some inspection report or spot visit report Page 7 of 14 Uploaded by PALAK BRAHMBHATT(HC01391) on Tue Jul 15 2025 Downloaded on : Tue Jul 15 22:00:19 IST 2025 NEUTRAL CITATION C/SCA/2724/2025 ORDER DATED: 11/07/2025 undefined etc. If the authority wants to rely upon any particular piece of evidence then it owes a duty to first bring it to the notice of the dealer so that if the dealer has anything to say in that regard, he may do so. Even if the authority wants to rely on any documentary evidence, the dealer should be first put to the notice of such documentary evidence and only thereafter, it may be looked into. 18.3 The aforesaid may appear to be very trivial issues but, it assumes importance in reducing the unnecessary litigation. Our concern is that on account of procedural lapses, the High Court should not be flooded with writ applications. The procedural aspects should be looked into by the authority concerned very scrupulously and deligently. Why unnecessarily give any dealer a chance to make a complaint before this Court when it could have been easily avoided by the department. Page 8 of 14 Uploaded by PALAK BRAHMBHATT(HC01391) on Tue Jul 15 2025 Downloaded on : Tue Jul 15 22:00:19 IST 2025
NEUTRAL CITATION C/SCA/2724/2025 ORDER DATED: 11/07/2025 undefined
19. In the result, all the writ applications deserve to be allowed solely on the ground of violation of principles of natural justice and, accordingly, the writ applications are allowed. We quash and set aside the respective show cause notices of all the writ applications, seeking cancellation of registration as well as the consequential respective impugned orders cancelling registration with liberty to the respondent No. 2 to issue fresh notice with particulars of reasons incorporated with details and thereafter to provide reasonable opportunity of hearing to the writ applicants, and to pass appropriate speaking orders on merits. It is needless to mention that it shall be open for the writ applicants to respond to such notices by filing objections / reply with necessary documents, if relied upon. We clarify that we have not gone into merits of the case."
6. The aforesaid judgment was rendered in the Page 9 of 14 Uploaded by PALAK BRAHMBHATT(HC01391) on Tue Jul 15 2025 Downloaded on : Tue Jul 15 22:00:19 IST 2025 NEUTRAL CITATION C/SCA/2724/2025 ORDER DATED: 11/07/2025 undefined year 2022. However, in spite of the above direction issued by this Court, the respondent-authorities without following such directions are issuing cryptic notice and order for cancellation of registration number of the petitioner.
7. In the present matter, order of cancellation of registration is passed without giving any reason by the respondent authorities, and Appeal filed by the petitioners under Section 107 of the GST Act is also dismissed.
8. As the Appellate Authority has dismissed the Appeals of the petitioner, the respondent- Authorities will not be able to exercise the revisional power under section 108 of the GST Act. Therefore, the impugned order passed by Page 10 of 14 Uploaded by PALAK BRAHMBHATT(HC01391) on Tue Jul 15 2025 Downloaded on : Tue Jul 15 22:00:19 IST 2025 NEUTRAL CITATION C/SCA/2724/2025 ORDER DATED: 11/07/2025 undefined the Appellate Authority as well as the order of cancellation of registration are required to be quashed and set aside. Accordingly, the matter is remanded back to the Assessing Officer at the show-cause notice stage. However, the registration of the petitioner shall remain suspended till the show-cause notice is decided by the Assessing Officer as per the following directions:
(i) The Assessing Officer shall provide detail reason for cancellation of registration of the petitioners, if not supplied earlier within a period of two weeks from the date of receipt of copy of this order.
(ii) Even if the reasons are supplied earlier and if the petitioner requests for the same, the respondent-authorities Page 11 of 14 Uploaded by PALAK BRAHMBHATT(HC01391) on Tue Jul 15 2025 Downloaded on : Tue Jul 15 22:00:19 IST 2025 NEUTRAL CITATION C/SCA/2724/2025 ORDER DATED: 11/07/2025 undefined shall again provide a copy of the reasons for cancellation of the registration upon such request.
(iii) The petitioner shall file written reply upon receipt of the detail reasons for issuance of the show-cause notice for cancellation of registration within a period of two weeks from the date of receipt of the reasons.
(iv) After receipt of the reply from the petitioner, the respondent authorities shall pass appropriate order in accordance with law after providing opportunity of personal hearing to the petitioner and after considering the reply of the petitioners within a period of four weeks from the date of personal hearing.
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(v) The aforesaid timeline shall be followed by both the sides. The petitioner shall also cooperate with the respondent-authorities in compliance of the aforesaid timeline for disposal of the show-cause notice by the respondent authorities.
9. In view of the above, this petition is partly allowed by quashing and setting aside the impugned order passed by the Appellate Authority as well as order of cancellation of registration and the matter is remanded to the Assessing Officer at show-cause notice stage, however, the registration number of the petitioner shall remain suspended till such show cause notice is disposed of as per the directions given above.
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10. It is clarified that this Court has not gone into the merits of the matter. The respondent-Authorities shall pass appropriate order in accordance with law after providing detailed reasons and opportunity of hearing to the petitioner.
11. This petition is accordingly disposed of.
(BHARGAV D. KARIA, J) (PRANAV TRIVEDI,J) PALAK Page 14 of 14 Uploaded by PALAK BRAHMBHATT(HC01391) on Tue Jul 15 2025 Downloaded on : Tue Jul 15 22:00:19 IST 2025