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2023 (1) TMI 743 - HC - Service TaxValidity of adjudication of SCN after much delay - inordinate delay - grant of centralized service tax registration - Divisional Officer was obliged to send intimation to the respective jurisdictional Service Tax office-in-charge of the erstwhile branch to transfer the relevant records to its office for taking further action and to update the records, but despite the same, the files pertaining to the said show cause cum demand notice were not transferred to the Respondent No.2 - notice of hearing was issued around eleven years after the date of the said show cause cum demand notice - HELD THAT:- The Respondents have not acted in the manner as required by law. True that, while the Respondents’ right in law to initiate proceedings for violation of the provisions of the Act can never by disputed, at the same time, they do not have the unfettered right to choose a time to conclude the said proceedings as per their own whims and fancies. Action on the part of a constituent of State has to be with responsibility and not caprice - The words “reasonable period” call for a flexible rather than a rigid construction having regard to the facts of each case, but the period in excess of eleven years as claimed by the Petitioner or even seven years, if we were to consider the period from 8 May 2013, when the Petitioner informed the Respondent Authority that it had obtained Centralized Registration, without the Respondents sufficiently explaining as to what prevented them from concluding the proceedings except their own delay, in our view is nothing but unreasonable and the reasons stated in the affidavit-in-reply cannot be accepted. Respondents having delayed the transfer of proceedings from Delhi to Mumbai and not even having bothered to themselves do the same upon the Centralized Registration by the Petitioner on 9 September 2010 and even after the Petitioner informed of the same on 8 May 2013, without any satisfactory explanation for this delay, adjudication of the Show Cause cum Demand Notice No.59 of 2009 dated 12 October 2009, which ought to have been culminated within a reasonable time has not been done and adjudicating the same now after an inordinate and unreasonable lapse of time would be detrimental and cause severe prejudice to the Petitioner. The impugned show cause cum demand notice dated 12 October 2009 cannot be carried forward after such an inordinate delay - Petition allowed.
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