Denial of GST Appeal would Cost Taxpayer an Important Forum: Calcutta HC allows Appeal Subject to Conditions [Read Order]

The Calcutta High Court allowed the GST ( Goods and Services Tax )appeal stating that denying the same would cost the taxpayer an important forum. However, it directed to pay Rs.20,000/- to the State Legal Services Authority, West Bengal.

The Petitioner, Ishika Packaging Private Limited challenged an order passed by the Appellate Authority under Section 107 of the West Bengal GST Act, 2017, which dismissed their appeal against Section 73 adjudication order on the ground of limitation.

The order under Section 73 was passed April 24, 2024. However, the petitioner preferred appeal with delay. It submitted that they were unaware of the adjudication order as it was uploaded on the GST portal under the “Additional Notices and Orders” tab instead of the “View Orders” tab.

Mr. Himangshu Kumar Ray, the counsel for the petitioner contended that certain official emails containing intimation were inadvertently deleted by an employee, and that they came to know of the order only upon initiation of recovery proceedings.

The GST authorities asserted that the petitioners had due notice of earlier proceedings and that after portal upgrades, orders uploaded under “Additional Notices and Orders” were accessible. Therefore the submission that was unaware of the order was not acceptable.

Justice Om Narayan Rai heard both sides. The court said that the explanation for the delay that ‘unaware of order as it was uploaded in additional notices tab’ was not satisfactory. It was said that the petitioner appears to have knowledge of the notice.

However, even though observing the same, the court did not want the taxpayer to miss an important forum. Therefore, to ‘balance the equities’ it directed to file an appeal after making a deposit to the State Legal Services Authority, West Bengal within 2 weeks.

After such a deposit, the appellate authority was directed to hear the appeal on merits.

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