Setback to Sun Pharma: Sikkim High Court rejects plea of Refund of CGST and 50% of IGST paid through the Electronic Cash Ledger [Read Order]

The Sikkim High Court rejected the plea seeking the refund of Central Goods and Service Tax (CGST) and 50% of Integrated Goods and Service Tax (IGST) paid through the electronic cash ledger.

The Petitioner, M/s. Sun Pharma Laboratories Limited has filed an application under Order VI Rule 17 read with section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, seeking to insert amendments in the Writ Petition.

The prayer of the petitioner was confined to granting the Petitioner refund of the Central Goods and Services Tax and 50% of the Integrated Goods and Services Tax paid through the electronic cash ledger.

An alternative prayer ensues directing the Respondents to fix a special rate of refund eligible to the Petitioner to entitle them to refund equivalent to that available under the erstwhile regime which should also be granted under the budgetary support scheme.

The Division Judge bench of Justice Bhaskar Raj Pradhan and Justice Meenakshi Madan Rai observed that the Petitioner seeks to challenge the vires of Section 174(2)(c) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and Notification No.21/2017-C.E., dated July 18, 2017, on the ground that it takes away the vested rights of the Petitioner by reducing the exemption or benefits to the Petitioner.

The court opined that The prayers in the Writ Petition are confined to enabling the Petitioner to claim a full refund of the CGST and 50% of the IGST paid through the electronic cash ledger. It cannot be said that the Petitioner was unaware of the provision of the statute the vires of which they now seek to assail, nor was it inserted at some point later in time to the filing of the Writ Petition.

The court said that the question of the Petitioner’s inability to raise the matter in spite of due diligence, before the matter was heard or was taken up for hearing, therefore, does not arise. In view of the questions involved in the instant Writ Petition, it cannot be said that the amendments are necessary for determining the real question in controversy between the parties considering the prayers of the Petitioner.