No penalty if wrong address entered in E-Way bill due to human error: Allahabad HC

 

 

The Allahabad High Court in a ruling, addressed an issue related to the E-way bill under the Goods and Services Tax (GST). The court stated that providing a different address in the E-way bill rather than the consignee’s address can be attributed to human error. Mentioning the absence of intent to evade tax, the court quashed the order.

The petitioner, engaged in supplying electrical goods, faced penalties for a discrepancy where the E-Way bill erroneously listed the delivery location as Chandpur instead of the actual consignee, M/s Udit Engineers in Aligarh. The petitioner claimed that this error was minor and unintentional, with no discrepancies in the quality or quantity of the goods.The Court’s decision was influenced by previous judgments where technical errors without fraudulent intent were not penalized.

It was discovered by the court that the difference in the e-way bill could also be a human error and observed the absence of findings by the authorities for the mens rea for tax evasion. The counsel of the respondent losses to furnish any argument or proof to recommend the intentional tax evasion by the applicant.

The bench repeated the observations from the matter of Nancy Trading Company Vs. State of U.P. & 3 Others to support the decision of the court. As per that the bench has quashed the order issued via the department. The department was asked to return amount if deposited within 1 month.

The copy of the order is as under:

Allahabad HC - Uttam Electric Store

From,
Krishnkant Jakhotia
Mobile No. :- 9422507911
Email Id :-  taxtalknew@gmail.com