Issue norms as to how many times summons can be issued during investigations: Bombay HC
The Bombay High Court has directed the Goods and Service Tax (GST) Department to issue norms as to how many times summons can be issued during investigations.
The division bench of Justice S.M.Modak and Justice R.D.Dhanuka has directed the Department/respondents to indicate as to how many time summons were issued by the respondents to the petitioners, for what purpose and the progress of the investigation during this period. Affidavit shall also indicate as to when the investigation would be completed by the respondents against the petitioners.
The grievance of the petitioners is also that no show cause notice is issued for conducting any investigation/enquiry against the petitioners. Various amounts have been recovered from the petitioners during this period when the petitioners appeared in response to the summons issued by the respondents. The petitioners have not appeared before the authority on a few occasions which according to the petitioners was due to unavoidable circumstances.
“A copy of this order shall be forwarded to the Additional Director General of DGGI, Pune to look into the matter personally. There are allegations made by several petitioners in various petitions about the repeated summons issued by the authority under the provisions of Central Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017 for the purpose of harassment, coercion and to compel them to deposit substantial amounts not in accordance with law,” the court said.
In view of the petitioners challenging the constitutional validity of Section 16(2)(c) of the Central Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017 and Maharashtra Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017, the court directed the issuance of notice upon the Attorney General for India and Advocate General for State of Maharashtra, returnable on March 28, 2022.
Case Title: Shalaka Infra-Tech India Pvt. Ltd. & Anr. Versus The Union of India & Ors.
