The Hon’ble Madras High Court in Asia (Chennai) Engineering v. Assistant Commissioner (ST) (FAC) [W.P. (MD).Nos.13851 and 13870 of 2022 dated August 22, 2022] held that the filing of a reply to the show-cause notice in form GST-DRC-06 is not mandatory under Section 73(9), 74(9) and 76(3) of Central Goods and Services Act, 2017 (“the CGST Act”) and the reply so filed through post shall also be treated as valid. Also, while disposing of the petition, the Court directed the assessing authority to fix the personal hearing date for the assessee, give him an opportunity, and receive any documents produced by the assessee.