Delhi High Court Rejects Challenge To CGST Proceedings As SGST Notices Came Later

The Delhi High Court has rejected a challenge to Central GST proceedings after finding that the corresponding State GST notices were issued later.

The division bench of Justices Anil Kshetarpal and Shail Jain made the ruling while dealing with a writ petition filed by a partnership firm challenging CGST proceedings as being barred under Section 6(2)(b).

The provision provides that where a proper officer under the State GST law has initiated proceedings on a subject matter, no proceedings shall be initiated by the proper officer under the CGST Act on the same subject matter.

Revenue submitted that a search of the Petitioners' premises was conducted in February 2020, and after investigation, a show cause notice under Section 74 of the CGST Act was issued on March 22, 2023, covering the financial years 2017-18 to 2021-22.

The State GST authorities, meanwhile, issued notices beginning September 25, 2023, for the financial years 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20.

Revenue therefore argued that the CGST proceedings had commenced before the SGST proceedings.

Taking note of this chronology, the High Court held that the Petitioners' contention under Section 6(2)(b) did not disclose a jurisdictional infirmity warranting bypassing the statutory appellate remedy.

It reiterated that although the existence of an alternative remedy does not render a writ petition non-maintainable, whether to entertain such a petition remains a matter of judicial discretion.

As such, the Court declined to exercise its writ jurisdiction.

For Petitioner: Advocates Sunil Agarwal, Adeeb Ahmad and Harshita Sharma

For Respondents: Advocates Piyush Beriwal, Ruchita Srivastava and Sparsh Jain