Plea In Delhi High Court Challenges GST Demand Notices Based On Uncorrected Return

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday heard a petition challenging GST demand notices allegedly issued on the basis of an uncorrected return, despite the petitioner's claim that revised returns had been considered during audit proceedings.

The division bench of Justices Anil Kshetrapal and Shail Jain was hearing a plea filed by an engineering design consultant company.

Senior Advocate Puneet Agrawal for the Petitioner-company submitted that while filing its GST return for the financial year 2014–15, a clerical error had occurred, which could not be rectified within the prescribed 90-day period. It was submitted that the Petitioner subsequently sought correction of the error, and during audit proceedings, the revised returns were taken into consideration.

Counsel further submitted that although the audit detected delayed payment of tax and interest liability was imposed, the present challenge concerns demand notices dated July 12, 2019 and January 13, 2022, which, according to the Petitioner, were issued on the basis of the original defective return.

It was argued that once the revised return had been considered during the audit, the demand founded on the unrevised return was unjustified.

Counsel for the Revenue contended that the revised return was not reflected on the GST portal because it had not been filed within the statutory period of 90 days prescribed for revision, and sought some time.

Accordingly, the matter is listed for final disposal on August 18.

For Petitioner: Advocates Puneet Agrawal, Mansi Khurana, Viplav Tiwari & Chetan Kumar Shukla