The Allahabad High Court ruled that Section 5 of the Limitation Act, 1963 applies to rectification of orders under Section 31 of the Uttar Pradesh Value Added Tax Act, 2008 ( UPVAT Act ).
The writ petition is filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, wherein the petitioner is aggrieved by the order dated April 6, 2022 passed by the Commercial Tax Tribunal refusing to entertain the rectification application of the petitioner on the ground that the same was time barred.
The Counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner submitted that the original order was passed by the Commercial Tax Tribunal, however the petitioner was not made aware of the said order and that the petitioner came to know about the said order only on September 14, 2021 when its bank account was attached.
It was further submitted that there was a typographical error in the order passed by the Tribunal on March 18, 2017 wherein the figure should have been Rs.34,04,333/- but by mistake, the order contained the figure Rs.30,04,333/- and that this typographical error is without any fault of the petitioner and it should not be penalised for the same. He submitted that there is no expressed or implicit bar of application of Section 5 of the Limitation Act, 1963 to Section 31 of the Uttar Pradesh Value Added Tax Act, 2008 as there is no provision for extension of the time period of three years provided in Clause (1) of Section 31 of the UPVAT Act.
A Single Bench of Justice Shekhar B. Saraf observed that “Without going into hyper technicality with regard to period of limitation, this Court keeping in mind the Supreme Court judgment for extension of period of limitation and the fact that Section 5 of the Limitation Act would apply to Section 31 of the UPVAT Act is of the view that the delay in filing the rectification application should be condoned. In light of the same, the order dated April 6, 2022 passed by the Tribunal is quashed and set aside with a direction upon the Tribunal to hear the rectification application of the petitioner on merit and decide the same within four months from date.”
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