Petitioner | Aditya Energy Holdings |
Respondent | DGGI, Chennai Zonal Unit, Chennai |
Decision by | Madras High Court |
Date of order or Judgement | 10- December-2021 |
Citation no. | WP.No.9654 of 2021 2021 (12) GSTPanacea 3 HC Madras |
Hon’ble Judge | Justice C. Saravanan |
Decision | In Favour of Assessee |
ITC Wrongly Availed-Facts of the Case
ITC Wrongly Availed-Amount paid under-protest during investigation : Petition is filed for direction to respondent to refund Rs. 17,27,790/- and Rs. 12,60,472/- which was paid by petitioner when officers of respondent visited his premises and investigated regarding alleged wrong availment of ITC.
The petitioner submitted that the said amount was paid under coercion and therefore, the amount should be refunded to him.
The petitioner has filed this Writ Petition seeking for a mandamus to direct the respondent to refund a sum of Rs.17,27,790/- and Rs. 12,60,472/- which was paid by the petitioner during the course when the officers conducted investigation.
ITC Wrongly Availed-Argument Before Court
ITC Wrongly Availed-Senior Standing Counsel for the respondents submitted that there is no merits in this Writ Petition and as the ITC was wrongly availed, the petitioner had paid the aforesaid amount after admitting to wrongdoing.
Madras High Court held
ITC Wrongly Availed-The amount paid by the petitioner are only deposits pending proper adjudication under Section 73 / 74 of the CGST Act, 2017. It appears that the amounts were collected from the petitioner during March 2021, at the time when summons were also issued to the petitioner, Mahazar was drawn and seizure memo was also issued to the petitioner on the same date. The petitioner also appears to have sent a representation on 1.4.2021.
There is no merits in this Writ Petition at this stage. The amount paid by the petitioner shall be treated as amount paid by the petitioner ‘under protest’ and will be subject to the final appropriation in the proceedings to be initiated under Sections 73 / 74 of CGST Act, 2017.
HC inclined to dispose the Writ Petition by directing the respondent to complete the investigation and proceed to issue appropriate show-cause notice to the petitioner within a period of six months from the date of receipt of a copy of this order.
The respondent is also directed to return the photo copies of the seized documents to the petitioner, if they have not been already returned to the petitioner.
The respondent shall clearly spell out the reasons and give details of the relied upon documents based on which the demand is proposed to be made against the petitioner and why the amount already paid by the petitioner should not be appropriated.
Time limit to complete this entire process will be within 12 months.
If there is no case made out in the show cause proceedings, the respondent shall refund the amount to the petitioner, in accordance with law.
The Writ Petition stands disposed with the above observations.
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