The Delhi high court was on Wednesday informed that Delhi's VAT officer issued 10,000 orders of recovery in a single day that led to recovery of Rs 450 crores.

Alleging the officer had violated principles of natural justice and passed orders without hearing them, an organization of traders and sales tax lawyers have opposed the procedure followed by Bijai Kadam.

Filed by the Sales Tax Bar Association, the petition against the VAT officer wondered how 10,000 orders can be issued in a single day by an officer arguing he didn't apply his mind to each of these. The petition claimed there was chaos in the business community when they received penalty and recovery related orders.

"Many of them were unsigned and looked as if they had been automatically generated from a computer," the bar alleged, prompting the court to stay the proceedings. After the government and its VAT office claimed they had a legal software that allowed them to pass so many orders, HC asked them to demonstrate the functioning of the software to the bar association. HC gave them two weeks time to allay fears of the trader community.