Telangana High Court Halts Coercive Recovery Under Form GST DRC-13, Permits Assessee to File Delayed Appeal

The intersection of statutory timelines and the principles of natural justice frequently becomes a focal point in Goods and Services Tax (GST) litigation. A recurring grievance among businesses is the sudden initiation of recovery proceedings without their prior awareness of the underlying tax demands. In a recent judicial intervention, the Hon'ble Telangana High Court addressed this precise issue in the case of Y.V.G. Narayana Vs Assistant Commissioner of Central Tax.

The Court provided critical interim relief to the assessee by staying coercive recovery actions initiated via a garnishee notice. Simultaneously, the Court granted the assessee an opportunity to challenge the original assessment order through the statutory appellate route, subject to the fulfillment of mandatory pre-deposit requirements and the filing of a delay condonation application.

Factual Matrix of the Dispute

The legal controversy stemmed from a series of notices and orders issued by the GST department against the assessee, M/s. Y.V.G. Narayana. The chronological sequence of the departmental actions, as presented before the High Court, unfolded as follows:

  • Issuance of Show Cause Notice: The initial show cause notice proposing the tax demand was issued on 25.09.2023.
  • Passing of the Assessment Order: Subsequently, the adjudicating authority passed the Order-in-Original on 21.03.2025.
  • Issuance of Demand Summary: The summary of the said order was uploaded and issued in Form GST DRC-07 on 24.03.2025.
  • Initiation of Garnishee Proceedings: Following the non-payment of the demanded tax, the department escalated the recovery process by issuing a garnishee notice in Form GST DRC-13 on 04.06.2026.

Aggrieved by the sudden financial encumbrance, the assessee approached the Telangana High Court by filing Writ Petition No. 22845 of 2026, challenging the entire sequence of proceedings from the initial show cause notice to the ultimate garnishee notice.