M/s CREATORS CONSTRUCTIONS v. THE ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER CENTRAL TAX AND CENTRAL EXCISE

Introduction

This judgment of the Kerala High Court reinforces the settled legal principle that a single Show Cause Notice (SCN) or a single adjudication order covering multiple assessment years is impermissible under the GST law. The Court reiterated that each financial year constitutes an independent assessment period and, therefore, requires separate adjudication. A consolidated Show Cause Notice or Order-in-Original for multiple years violates the statutory scheme of year-wise assessment and cannot be sustained.

Following the binding Division Bench decisions in Joint Commissioner (Intelligence & Enforcement) v. M/s. Lakshmi Mobiles Accessories and Tharayil Medicals v. Deputy Commissioner, Audit Division-IV, the Court quashed both the consolidated Show Cause Notice and the consequential Order-in-Original. At the same time, it safeguarded the Revenue’s interest by permitting fresh proceedings through separate notices for each assessment year and directing exclusion of the period spent in the defective proceedings while computing limitation.