Neutral Citation No. - 2025:AHC:82825-DB Chief Justice's Court Case :- WRIT TAX No. - 2343 of 2025 Petitioner :- M/s AVCOM Media Pvt Ltd Respondent :- State of U.P. and another Counsel for Petitioner :- Aditya Pandey Counsel for Respondent :- Ankur Agarwal, S.C. Hon'ble Arun Bhansali,Chief Justice Hon'ble Kshitij Shailendra,J. 1. The petition has been filed by the petitioner aggrieved of the order dated 16.08.2024 passed by the Deputy Commissioner, State Tax, Sector-10, Kanpur wherein demand to the tune of Rs. 11,07,903.90 has been created. 2. Submissions have been made that the show cause notice issued to the petitioner under Section 73 of the Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (for short 'the Act, 2017'), though provided last date of filing reply, in the column pertaining to the date of hearing, the same date by which the reply was to be submitted i.e. 18.06.2024 was indicated. 3. Submissions have been made that reply to the show cause notice was filed inter-alia seeking to respond to the issues raised in the show cause notice, including indications that by mistake due to late receipt of bills indicated in the reply, tax was returned as payable on RCM basis and along with the reply, documents were filed seeking to substantiate the same. 4. Further submissions have been made that the authority apparently without providing any opportunity of hearing in the context of reply filed by the petitioner, though noticing the reply and observing that the reply was not supported by documents, passed the order on 16.08.2024. 5. Admittedly, the petitioner was not provided any opportunity of hearing. Section 75(4) of the Act requires that in case the authority intends to pass an order against a person, he is required to provide an opportunity of hearing. Once, for lack of documents, the authority came to the conclusion that the plea raised was not acceptable, it was incumbent on the authority to provide opportunity of hearing to the petitioner, on failure of providing opportunity of hearing, the order impugned cannot be sustained. 6. Consequently, the petition is allowed. The order impugned dated 16.08.2024 is set aside. The matter is remanded back to the authority, which would provide opportunity of hearing to the petitioner and, thereafter, pass a fresh order in accordance with law. Order Date :- 17.5.2025 nd (Kshitij Shailendra, J) (Arun Bhansali, CJ) Digitally signed by :- NISITH DEY High Court of Judicature at Allahabad