In a recent ruling of the Kerala High Court, presided by Justice A K Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice Mohammed Niyas C P directed the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Appellate Authorities to consider the appeal after the payment of the Kerala Legal Benefit Fund.
The prime issue is that the GST Appellate authorities refused to entertain the appeals preferred by the petitioner against the assessment orders due to non-payment of the Kerala Legal Benefit Fund.
The petitioner filed a writ petition in opposition to the challenged decision of the single bench of the High Court.
The bench noticed the dismissal of the writ petition by the single bench noting that even though the Supreme Court had received a Special Leave Petition opposing the Division Bench’s decision, the Court did not stay the judgment’s execution after accepting the Special Leave Petition.
The petitioner challenged the power of the State Government to reopen an assessment, after the coming into force of the GST regime and the cessation of the erstwhile Kerala Value Added Tax regime in the State.
It was submitted by the petitioner that while appeals had been preferred against the said assessment orders, the First Appellate Authority (respondent) dismissed the appeals preferred against the assessment orders solely on the ground that the required amounts towards the Kerala Legal Benefit Fund had not been paid by the appellant as a precondition for maintaining the appeals before the First Appellate Authority.
After considering the request of the petitioner, the bench observed that there is no prejudice to the revenue by directing the First Appellate Authority to consider the appeals preferred by the appellant in these Writ Appeals, on merits.
The division bench while upholding the decision of the single bench in the writ appeals to the extent it finds against the appellant on the issue of the power of the State Government to reopen an assessment subsequent to the Constitution Amendment (101st Amendment Act), decided to dispose these Writ Appeals by directing the First Appellate Authority to entertain the appeals preferred by the appellant against the orders of assessment, after collecting the amounts due towards the Kerala Legal Benefit Fund.
Also, if the appellant corrects the issue with the transfer of funds to the Kerala Legal Benefit Fund within three weeks of the judgement date, the appeals would be treated as properly filed and will be resolved on their merits.
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