A division bench of the Calcutta High Court has held that the audit proceedings initiated by the Anti Evasion and Range Office for the same period shall be invalid under the Central GST Act, 2017.
Justice T. S. Sivagnanam and Justice Supratim Bhattacharya was considering a petition by M/s. R. P. Buildcon Private Limited &Anr wherein the petitioner approached the High Court seeking a direction that the scrutiny of returns under Section 61 of the CGST Act, 2017 cannot be done once an audit under Section 65 of the CGST Act, 2017 has been conducted by the department for the same tax period.
The High Court held that since the audit proceedings under Section 65 of the Act has already commenced, it is but appropriate that the proceedings should be taken to the logical end.
“The proceedings initiated by the Anti Evasion and Range Office for the very same period shall not be proceeded with any further,” the Court said.
“Accordingly, the appeal along with the connected application stand allowed and the order passed by the learned Single Bench is set aside and there will be a direction to the first and fourth respondents to issue show cause notice to the appellants within a period of six weeks from the date of receipt of the server copy of this judgment and order and afford a reasonable opportunity to the appellants to submits their reply along with documents. Thereafter, an opportunity of personal hearing be granted to the authorised representative of the appellants either in physical or in virtual mode. Subsequently, a speaking order be passed on merits and in accordance with law within a period of three weeks from the date on which the personal hearing is concluded,” the Court said.
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