Heard Ms. Pooja Talwar, learned counsel for the petitioner and Shri Apurva Hajela, learned Standing Counsel for the State.

Challenge has been raised to the order dated 05.09.2019 passed by the Assistant Commissioner, Commercial Tax Department, Kanpur Nagar, whereby, the petitioner’s registration under the U.P. GST Act, 2017 has been cancelled.

The present petition appears to have been first presented before this Court is on 20.09.2021 i.e. more than two years after the impugned order came to be passed.

Learned counsel for the petitioner submits, there is complete violation of principle of natural justice in the present case. She vehemently contended that the issuance of the prior show cause notice before the order cancelling the registration may be passed, is a sine qua non. She relies on a decision of the Division Bench of this Court in the case of Kashi Bartan Bhandar vs. State of U.P. and 2 others reported in 2019 NTN (Vol. 69) 111. It may be noted here itself that in the aforesaid case, the order cancelling the registration was passed on 27.01.2018, whereas, the petition was instituted before this Court in the year 2018 itself.

In such facts, learned Standing Counsel vehemently submitted that the writ petition is hit by unexplained latches inasmuch as it may never be expected that upon cancellation of its registration by the impugned order dated 05.09.2019, the petitioner may have carried on business or may have remained unaware of the order till March 2020. Such orders are uploaded on the GST portal itself and are easily accessible to the concerned. In any case, no genuine explanation exists for the period March 2020 to September 2021 to overlook the unexplained latches.

On merits, it has been submitted by the learned counsel for the petitioner that other than the fact that the petitioner did not reply to the notice, there is no ground cited in the impugned order to cancel the petitioner’s registration.

Having heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the record, we find that the present petition has been filed more than two years after the order dated 05.09.2019 came to be passed. In absence of any credible explanation as to the delay, we do not find any ground exists to entertain the present petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, filed belatedly.

Accordingly, the writ petition is dismissed leaving it open to the petitioner to avail its remedy of appeal. It is thus provided that in the event, the petitioner files an appeal within a period of two weeks’ along with a copy of this order, that appeal may be dealt with and decided on its own merit, strictly in accordance with law.

It is also made clear that any observations made in this order may not prejudice the right of the petitioner to file an application seeking fresh registration.