Merely Attaching Tax Determination Statement To DRC-01 Summary Cannot Be Treated As A Valid SCN: Gauhati High Court

Justice Sanjay Kumar Medhi stated that “…….a formal and duly authenticated SCN is mandatorily required to initiate proceedings under Section 73. The Statement of tax determination under Section 73(3), which is attached to the summary cannot be treated as a valid SCN. Therefore, initiating proceedings solely based on such a statement is not in conformity with law.”

In this case, the assessee/petitioner was issued a Summary of Show Cause in GST DRC-01 for the tax period from April 2018 – March 2019 along with an attachment as regards the determination of tax.

It is the case of the assessee that as there was no proper Show Cause Notice attached to the Summary of the Show Cause Notice in the portal, the assessee did not submit any reply.

The assessee submitted that under no circumstances the attachment to the GST DRC-01 can be said to be a Show Cause Notice inasmuch as in the said attachment, there is no mention that the assessee is required to show cause.

The department submitted that the respondent authorities have issued the Summary of the Show Cause Notice in Form DRC-01 which was accompanied by the determination of tax which would have provided all the details so that the assessee could have submitted the reply.

The bench opined that the SCN, the Statement, and the final Order under Section 73(9) must be issued and passed only by the Proper Officer, as defined under Section 2(91) of the Act, these documents must be properly authenticated in accordance with Rule 26(3) of the CGST Rules, 2017. The summaries issued in GST DRC-01, DRC-02, and DRC-07 are merely supplementary and cannot override or replace the requirement of issuing proper and authenticated primary documents.

The bench stated that “it appears that the respondents have proceeded under the mistaken impression that attaching the determination of tax to the summary constitutes a valid Show Cause Notice”.

In view of the above, the bench allowed the petition.

Case Title: Naser Ali Mondal v The State of Assam and Ors

Case Number: WP(C)/4157/2025

Counsel for Petitioner/Assessee: Amit Goyal

Counsel for Respondent/Department: B. Choudhury

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