Madras High Court on GST Show Cause Notice for Mauritius Supreme Court Project: Key Takeaways

Background and Context

The dispute arose from a GST demand initiated against Renaatus Projects Private Limited in relation to a construction contract executed in Mauritius. The core controversy was whether Indian GST authorities had jurisdiction to issue a show cause notice (SCN) for a project executed outside India and whether such an SCN could be challenged directly in writ proceedings before completion of adjudication.

The matter reached the Madras High Court in a writ appeal challenging the order of a learned Single Judge, who had declined to interfere at the stage of SCN and dismissed the writ petition as premature.

Factual Matrix

Nature of business and contract

  • The assessee is a Private Limited company registered under GST in Tamil Nadu.
  • It is engaged in construction of:
    • Roads and highways
    • Bridges and infrastructure projects
    • Industrial structures
    • Hotels and various civil works for Government and private entities

Award of project and execution timeline

  • NBCC India Limited, a Government of India Navratna PSU under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, floated a tender on 19.09.2017 for construction of the New Supreme Court Building at Port Louis, Mauritius under a Government of India grant to the Mauritius Government.
  • After the tender process:
    • Letter of Award issued to the assessee on 14.11.2017
    • Formal agreement entered into on 06.12.2017 between NBCC India Limited and the assessee
    • Construction of the Supreme Court building at Port Louis, Mauritius was completed in October 2020

Departmental action and inspection

Subsequently, based on intelligence inputs, GST authorities initiated action:

  1. Letter of authorization for inspection issued by the Additional Director on 08.10.2020
  2. Premises of the assessee in India inspected on 09.10.2020, and various records verified
  3. Post-inspection, Show Cause Notice No. 76/2024-GST dated 22.07.2024 was issued, proposing demand of GST in respect of the Mauritius project

Initial writ petition and appeal

  • The assessee filed W.P. No. 32465 of 2024 seeking a writ of certiorari to quash the impugned SCN on the ground that it was without jurisdiction.
  • By order dated 26.08.2025, the learned Single Judge:
    • Dismissed the writ petition as premature,
    • Held that the assessee’s objections could be raised before the adjudicating authority in response to the SCN.
  • The assessee then preferred a writ appeal challenging this dismissal before the Division Bench of the Madras High Court.

The Division Bench examined two principal issues:

  1. Whether the impugned Show Cause Notice No. 76/2024-GST dated 22.07.2024 was issued without jurisdiction in light of the project being located in Mauritius.
  2. Whether a writ petition challenging a show cause notice should be entertained at all when the determination of GST applicability is dependent on detailed examination of disputed facts.

Statutory Provisions Examined

The following provisions of the Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 were central to the rival contentions:

  • Section 2(70) – definition of “location of the supplier of services”
  • Section 2(71) and Section 2(71)(iii) – definition of “location of the recipient of services”
  • Section 7(1) – scope of inter-State supply
  • Section 12(3) – determination of place of supply of services in relation to immovable property

These provisions were used to argue on both sides:

  • Whether the supply in question was an inter-State supply governed by the GST Act
  • Whether place of supply and situs of the project being outside India excluded the transaction from the scope of Indian GST law

Submissions on Behalf of the Assessee