GST Notice? Your Right to Hearing Saves You

A Punjab & Haryana High Court ruling says tax authorities MUST give you a personal hearing before passing any adverse GST order. If they skip this step, the order can be cancelled entirely — a powerful protection for small business owners and self-employed Indians.

Here's what happened: Punjab & Haryana High Court ruled that a personal hearing under Section 75(4) of the GST Act is mandatory before any adverse order is passed against a taxpayer.. The court set aside a GST demand order because the tax authority skipped the hearing step, making the order procedurally invalid regardless of the underlying tax claim.. This ruling reinforces existing GST law — Section 75(4) already grants every taxpayer the right to be heard, but many GST officers have been bypassing it in practice..

What you should do: Check every GST demand or penalty order you have received — if no hearing notice (ASMT or DRC form calling you to appear) was issued before the order, flag it to a GST practitioner immediately.. File a writ petition in the appropriate High Court if a GST order was passed against you without a personal hearing — courts are actively setting such orders aside based on this procedural ground.. Respond to all future GST show-cause notices in writing and explicitly request your mandatory personal hearing under Section 75(4) before any order is finalised — create a paper trail..

Even if the GST tax demand against you is partly correct, a procedural violation like denial of hearing gives you grounds to have the whole order quashed and reset — use it to negotiate or present evidence you couldn't earlier.

For readers weighing their credit and loan options, our personal loan guide and CIBIL score resources put this update in context.