Without a valid underlying order, any recovery action based on a summary order is legally unsustainable

Facts of the Case: In this case, the petitioner challenged actions taken by the respondent regarding the issuance of a summary order in Form GST DRC-07 which led to the attachment of bank accounts. A summary order in Form GST DRC-07 issued pertaining to a tax period from April 2018 to September 2018. Initially, the court observed that Assistant Commissioner, in a separate proceeding in 2021, had determined that no further action was required for the financial year 2018-19. Despite this, the respondents pursued recovery based on the summary order from 2019 without providing the petitioner with the actual order upon which the summary was based. The Court then directed the respondents to file an affidavit explaining the basis for their recovery actions

Held that: The Gujarat High Court has highlighted that without an underlying order, the summary order in Form GST DRC-07 had no legal value. The summary order is meant to record the outstanding demand from an actual order, but in this case, no such order existed. The court noted that the respondent's counsel could not provide a copy of the alleged order, which was supposedly the basis for the summary order. The Court ruled in favour of petitioner, quashing the summary order and ordering the release of the petitioner’s bank accounts. The Respondents were directed to immediately lift the attachment of the petitioner’s bank accounts.

To read the complete judgment 2024 taxo.online 1725