Section 62 of the CGST Act, 2017—Assessment —-The petitioner challenged the order dated 03.06.2021 as well as the order in appeal dated 13.07.2021. The Counsel for the petitioner submitted that along with the SCN, the petitioner was also supplied with the summary of SCN dated 08.01.2021. In the notices, there is a reference to the SIB report, however, the said report was never supplied to the petitioner. But an order came to be passed on 03.06.2021 under Section 74, wherein the demand of tax and penalty was quantified. The court observed that the sole basis for issuance of the SCN was the SIB report. No material in the form of the SIB report was ever supplied to the petitioner. Further, while passing the assessment order, the adjudicating authority assessed the demand of tax and levied penalty on the basis of some guidelines issued by the Income Tax Authorities and taking the mean average of 8%, which is wholly impermissible while adjudicating Section 74, the said manner of adjudication adopted by the respondents department can at best be termed as best judgment assessment which can be resorted to only under Section 62 and that too only in respect of the persons who have not filed the returns. In respect of the persons who have filed returns, Section 61(3) is very clear under which the department is duly empowered to take action under Sections 73 or 74. The order of the appellate authority is even further bad in law as it discloses no reason, whatsoever for assessing the tax and quantifying the liability.

Held that:- The Hon’ble High Court set aside the appellate order and the order.