A Single Bench of the Kerala High Court has dismissed a challenge of constitutionality of Section 16(4) of Goods and Services Tax Act ( GST Act ) as withdrawn, preserving the liberty of the petitioner to approach the statutory authority to avail the benefit of extended time limit for filing of statutory appeal.
The petitioner approached the Kerala High Court, seeking the following reliefs: –
“(i)issue a writ of mandamus or other appropriate writ or orders directing to set aside Ext. P1 order as Ext. P-1 Order was issued without considering the essence of Notification No. 19/2021 -Central Tax dated 01.06.2021 and Notification No. 33/2021 – Central Tax dated 29.08.2021.
(ii) issue a writ of mandamus or other appropriate writ or orders declaring that Section 16(4) shall not be applicable to cases in which return was belatedly filed due to reasons beyond the control of the assessee;
(iii) issue a writ of mandamus or other appropriate writ or orders declaring Section 16(4) of CGST Act and Section 16(4) of Kerala State GST Act to be illegal, arbitrary, unconstitutional and invalid to the extent it seeks to deny Input Tax Credit if it is not taken within the due date of furnishing of the return for the month of September following the end of the financial year to which any invoice or debit note pertains or furnishing of annual return, whichever is earlier;
(iv) issue a writ of mandamus or other appropriate writ or orders declaring the due dates mentioned in Section 16(4) of CGST Act and Section 16(4) of Kerala GST Act to have been
automatically extended for the time periods and category of assessees mentioned in Notification No. 19/2021 – Central Tax dated 01.06.2021 and Notification No. 33/2021 – Central Tax dated 29.08.2021, to such date to which the due date for filing GSTR – 3B was extended by the aforementioned Notifications;
(v) issue a writ of mandamus or other appropriate writ or orders declaring Ext. P-1 Order to be void ab initio as they seek to deny eligible ITC of the petitioner based on a misinterpretation of Section 16(4) of the CGST and Kerala State GST Acts;
(vi) Dispense with production of English translation of documents in vernacular languages; and
(vii) Issue any other writ, direction or order found fit and proper by this Honourable Court on the facts and in the circumstances of this case.”
The Counsel for the petitioner submitted that the time limit for filing the appeal against the impugned assessment order in Exhibit P-1 has been extended till 31.01.2024 and the petitioner would like to withdraw the writ petition and take recourse to remedy of appeal under Section 107 of the CGST/KGST Act, 2017 against the impugned order.
K. S. Hariharan Nair, along with G. Remadevi, Harima Hariharan, Rajath R Nath and Dheeraj Sasidharan represented the petitioner whereas Jasmine M. M. (Government Pleader) represented the respondent-revenue before the Kerala High Court.
The Single Bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh held that, “Considering the above submission of the learned Counsel for the petitioner, the present writ petition is dismissed as withdrawn with liberty as prayed above.”
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