Two judgments against one show cause notice for the same period are not allowed: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court stated that two injunctions against one notice for the same period are not admissible.

The Division Bench of Judges Yashwant Varma and Ravinder Dudeja dealt with a case where a show-cause notice was issued to the Assessing Officer under Section 74 of the CGST Act, 2017. This notice was duly considered by the department resulting in an order.

The curator lodged an appeal against this decision, which was still being processed by the competent official. However, during the pendency of the appeal, the department again ruled on the same notice and issued a subsequent order (dated April 23, 2024) on the same allegations, under the same section, imposing the same demand.

The Assessing Officer submitted that both orders have the reference to the same show cause notice, which means that the issuance of a second order (dated April 23, 2024) is nothing but double jeopardy. Issuing a second order on the basis of the same notice is nothing but gross abuse of power by the department as the order was issued without the authority of law and without any basis or reasoning.

The bank has stated this “We take note of what appears at first glance to be an apparent error underlying the adoption of the contested decision of April 23, 2024, a decision relating to the tax period from July 2018 to March 2019. culminating in the passing a final order, the impugned order dated April 23, 2024 is restated in respect of the same tax period and referring to the original Show Cause Notice dated December 30, 2020……..”

The bank was of the opinion that the second order is not sustainable.

In view of the above, the court upheld the request and quashed the second order.

Counsel for the petitioner/accused: RP Singh, Anant Vijay and Yash Agarwal

Counsel for Respondent/Department: Udit Malik and Vishal Chanda

Title of Case: M/s Jain Cement Udyog (through its owner Sh. Sanjay Jain) v. Sales Tax Officer Class-II

Case number: WP(C) 12860/2024

Click here to read/download the order