High court quashes 16-year-old show cause notice in major relief to Bombay Dyeing
India Today
Bombay Dyeing was issued a show cause notice in 2005 by the authorities of the Central Goods and Services Tax. Judges of the Bombay High Court were hearing the case.
The Bombay High Court has quashed a 2005 show-cause notice issued to Bombay Dyeing and Manufacturing Company Limited by the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) authorities. The company had approached the High Court in 2021 against the notice being kept alive.
In a relief to Bombay Dyeing, Justices RD Dhanuka and SM Modak of the High Court said that Bombay Dyeing is not expected to preserve evidence for so long and produce it at the time of the hearing.
The court pulled up the authorities, saying that it is their duty to take the show cause notice to its logical conclusion by adjudicating upon them "within a reasonable period of time".
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"In view of the gross delay on the part of the Respondent (the authorities), the Petitioner (Bombay Dyeing) cannot be made to suffer," the judges noted.
"Hearing of show cause notice belatedly is in violation of natural justice," the court said in its order.
The petition was filed by Bombay Dyeing when the 16-year-old notice was finally taken up for adjudication. Their lawyers submitted that the company was never informed of the said notice being kept in the call book after their prompt reply to it and that the authorities cannot be allowed to proceed with the notice more than 16 years later.
