MINIMOL SABU v. STATE OF KERALA & ORS.

Introduction

This judgment of the Kerala High Court reiterates the settled legal principle that a composite Show Cause Notice (SCN) and assessment order covering multiple assessment years under the GST Act are legally unsustainable. Following the earlier Division Bench decisions in Joint Commissioner (Intelligence & Enforcement) v. M/s. Lakshmi Mobiles Accessories and Tharayil Medicals (M/s.) v. Deputy Commissioner, the Court held that every financial year is an independent assessment period requiring separate adjudication.

The Court observed that issuing a single SCN and passing a consolidated order for several financial years violates the statutory scheme of assessment under the GST law. Accordingly, the Court quashed both the composite SCN and the consequential assessment order while granting liberty to the Revenue to issue fresh, separate notices for each assessment year. To balance the interests of the Revenue, the Court also directed that the period spent in the defective proceedings would be excluded while computing limitation for initiating fresh proceedings.