The court viewed that the respondents should take a pragmatic view in the matter and permit the petitioner to carry on his business.

The Calcutta High Court directed the Goods and Service Tax ( GST ) department to restore cancellation in absence of a dubious act. The GST registration was cancelled due to non-filing of GST returns. Santu Das, the petitioner challenged the order of cancellation of registration of the petitioner under the WBGST Act, 2017. The petitioner was served with a notice of show cause as to why the registration of the petitioner under the said Act shall not be cancelled for the petitioner having failed to furnish his returns for a continuous period of six months. Mr. Dugar, advocate appearing for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner was and is all along interested to comply with the provisions of the said Act by filing his returns. Unfortunately, such a fact could not be brought to the notice of the respondents, as no reply to the show cause was filed. He submitted that the petitioner is ready and willing to comply with the provisions of the said Act. Get a Copy of GST Smart Guide, Click here By placing reliance on a judgment of the Division Bench of the Court delivered in the case of Subhakar Golder versus Assistant Commissioner of State Tax, Serampore Charge , it is submitted that in similar circumstances, similar order of cancellation of registration has been set aside, subject to the condition that the petitioner files returns for the entire period of default, pays requisite amount of tax and interest and fine and penalty. He submitted that this Court may be pleased to set aside the order of cancellation and allow the petitioner to file his returns. Mr. Ray, Government Pleader on the other hand submitted that the petitioner had not complied with the statutory provisions and it is for such reason, the registration of the petitioner under the said Act was cancelled. The respondent authorities stated that they have given opportunity to the petitioner to show cause. Since, no reply to the show cause was given by the petitioner, the authorities had cancelled the registration. There is no irregularity on the part of the authorities in cancelling the registration. In fact, the appeal belatedly filed by the petitioner had also been dismissed by the Appellate Authority. that the registration of the petitioner had been cancelled on the ground of non-filing of returns. It is not the case of the respondents that the petitioner had been adopting a dubious process to evade tax. It was observed that the suspension/revocation of license would be counterproductive and works against the interest of the revenue since, the petitioner in such a case would not be able to carry on his business in the sense that no invoice can be raised by the petitioner and ultimately would impact recovery of tax. The court viewed that the respondents should take a pragmatic view in the matter and permit the petitioner to carry on his business. A single bench of Justice Raja Basu Chowdhury set aside the order cancelling the registration of the petitioner subject to the condition that the petitioner files his returns for the entire period of default and pays requisite amount of tax and interest and fine and penalty. Get a Copy of GST Smart Guide, Click here It was made clear that “if the petitioner complies with the directions / conditions noted above, within 4 weeks from the date of receipt of the server copy of this order, the petitioner’s registration under the said Act shall be restored by the Jurisdictional Officer. However, if the petitioner failed to comply with the directions as aforesaid, the benefit of this order will not enure to the petitioner and the writ petition would stand automatically dismissed.”