Allahabad High Court: GST And Central Excise Superintendent Has No Jurisdiction To Pass Order Exceeding Rs 10,00,000

The Allahabad High Court in the case M/S Mansoori Enterprises Versus U.O.I. observed and has quashed the order by the GST and Central Excise Superintendent for lack of jurisdiction.

The bench headed by Justice Alok Mathur in the case observed that as per the circular dated February 9, 2018 issued by the Government of India, Ministry of Finance, and Department of Revenue, the power of the Superintendent, Central Goods and Service Tax, and Central Excise is limited to the matter not exceeding for an amount of Rs. 10,00,000, and in the present case, the amount involved is more than Rs. 16,00,000, and consequently, the order passed by it is without jurisdiction.
The petitioner in the plea has challenged the order passed under Section 73 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, CGST which was being passed by the Superintendent of Central Goods and Services Tax and Central Excise.

Further, the petitioner in the plea contended that the order passed by the Superintendent, Central Goods and Services Tax, and Central Excise did not have jurisdiction to pass in light of the circular dated February 09, 2018 which is issued by the Government of India, Ministry of Finance, and Department of Revenue.
It has also been contended by the petitioner that the Superintendent, Central Goods and Service Tax, and Central Excise did not have jurisdiction to pass such an order.
On the other hand, the respondent department also issued an order on February 9, 2018 assigning jurisdiction to various authorities in relation to the maximum amount of central tax not paid, short paid, erroneously refunded, or input tax credit of central tax wrongly availed or utilized.

It has also been contended by the department before the court that the order is not proper to the extent that it was not passed by a proper officer as per Circular No. 31/05/2018-GST dated February 9, 2018, as the monetary limit of the input tax credit wrongly availed or utilized by the central tax is Rs. ten lakhs and the state tax is Rs. ten lakhs, totalling to Rs. twenty lakhs for the issuance of show cause notices and the passing of orders under Section 73 and Section 74 of the CGST Act.
The court in the case observed and has held that the order is without jurisdiction and is accordingly set aside.

The court while considering the facts and circumstances of the case observed and has granted the respondent department the liberty to proceed afresh in accordance with law.
The counsel, Advocate Dheeraj Srivastava appeared for the Petitioner.
The counsel, A.S.G.I. represented the respondent.