Commissioner can revise order of subordinate officer only after examination of records: Allahabad HC

Case details: North End Food Marketing (P.) Ltd. v. State Of Uttar Pradesh - [2021] 130 taxmann.com 152 (Allahabad)

Judiciary and Counsel Details

• • Mahesh Chandra Tripathi, J.
  • Nishant Mishra and Tanmay Sadh for the Petitioner.

Facts of the Case

The petitioner was a company dealing in the business of procuring commodities on behalf of its customers on Pan India basis. After search, ITC of the petitioner was blocked under Rule 86-A of the SGST Rules. The petitioner preferred statutory appeal before the Additional Commissioner and appeal was allowed by the Appellate Authority with the findings that before blocking the credit, there was no ‘reason to believe’. The appeal was allowed and the directions were issued for unblocking of credit.

Thereafter, the Commissioner passed revision order stating that the order passed by the Appellate Authority was legally and factually erroneous and required to be revised in the interest of the revenue. The petitioner filed writ petition against the same.

High Court Held

The Honorable High Court observed that as per Section 108, the revisional authority may stay decision or order passed by any officer subordinate to him if it is erroneous and prejudicial to the interest of revenue but only after giving the person concerned an opportunity of being heard. In the instant case, no notice was issued and opportunity of hearing to the petitioner was not granted. Moreover, revisional authority had to call for the records to make appropriate inquiry before passing such orders but the same was also not done in this case. Therefore, it was held that order failed to satisfy the requirement of law and liable to be set aside.