GST Appeal Rejected for Delay despite High Court’s Direction to Not Insist upon Limitation: Madras HC directs Readjudication [Read Order]

The Madras High Court recently set aside an order passed by the Goods and Services Tax (GST) appellate authority rejecting an assessee’s appeal on the ground of limitation, despite the High Court earlier issuing a direction stating that delay should not be insisted upon.

The decision was given by the High Court against a writ petition filed by M/s Oasys Marketing Agency, challenging an order from October 16, 2025 passed by the Appellate Authority in Form GST APL-02, by which the authority rejected the statutory appeal solely on the ground of delay.

The petitioner had also sought directions for defreezing its bank account, which had been attached pursuant to the GST proceedings.

The facts stem from assessment proceedings conducted against the petitioner, following which orders were passed by the jurisdictional State tax authorities.

The petitioner sought to appeal the order before the appellate authority, however since there was a delay in filing the appeal, the petitioner had earlier approached the High Court seeking relief.

In an earlier round of litigation, the High Court had permitted the petitioner to pursue the appellate remedy within a period of 2 weeks during which the appellate authority was to not insist upon the issue of limitation while considering the appeal.

Despite the direction, the appellate authority rejected the appeal solely on the ground that it was barred by limitation, without examining the merits of the case, thus leading to the present case.

M.S. Krishnakumar appeared for the petitioner and reiterated the submissions while praying that the bank account of the petitioner be de-freezed.

R. Suresh Kumar, Additional Government Pleader, representing the State tax authorities submitted that the petitioner had failed to make any reference to the directions given by the High Court regarding the limitation issue during the statutory appeal.

After considering the submissions, Justice Krishnan Ramasamy set aside the impugned order and directed the appellate authority to consider the appeal and adjudicate the same on its own merits and law, after providing sufficient opportunity to the petitioner.

Further, the state tax authorities were also directed to release the attachment of the petitioner freezed bank account upon the production of a copy of this order

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