The Madras High Court directed the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Authority to consider a GST appeal on merits, owing to the illness of the appellant, which resulted in a delay of 144 days, beyond the condonable delay of 120 days.
The petitioner challenged the order insofar as the imposition of penalty and interest under Section 73(9) and Section 73(7) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 ( the CGST Act ) are concerned.
The petitioner stated that pursuant to the show cause notice, the impugned assessment order was issued on 14.08.2023. Such order was received by the petitioner on 16.08.2023. Accordingly, the appeal should have been filed within 90 days thereof.
For the petitioner, N.Murali appeared and Rajinish Pathiyil, Sr. SC appeared for the respondents.
It was further stated that the appeal could not be filed in time both on account of the petitioner being diagnosed with septic shock and on account of the consequential difficulties in following up with the consultant.
As a result, it was stated that the time limits for filing an appeal with an application to condone delay expired on 16.12.2023.
It was observed by the Single Bench of the Madras High Court that, “Under Section 107 of the CGST Act, the Appellate Authority does not have the power to condone delay beyond 120 days. In this case, the period of further delay is only 24 days and the petitioner has provided cogent reasons to explain such delay. It is pertinent to note that the petitioner has paid the entire tax liability and the proposed appeal is limited to penalty and interest.”
Hence, the Appellate Authority is directed to receive and dispose of the appeal on merits if the appeal is received within a maximum period of ten days from the date of receipt of a copy of this order.
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