No Fresh GST Pre-Deposit Required if already Paid at First Appeal Stage: Jharkhand HC Permits Physical Filing if E-Filing Fails [Read Order]

The Jharkhand High Court has held that no fresh GST ( Goods and Services Tax ) pre-deposit can be demanded at the Tribunal stage where the assessee has already deposited an amount exceeding the statutory requirement at the first appellate stage.

An Order-in-Appeal that had confirmed part of the tax demand along with interest and penalty arising from an earlier adjudication order was challenged by the petitioner, Ashirwad Food Industries.

The petitioner had approached the High Court contending that although a statutory appeal remedy before the GSTAT was available, the Tribunal was not fully functional for adjudication.

The department argued that members had been appointed and e-filing was being permitted. It further submitted that if a 20% pre-deposit was made, no coercive recovery steps would be taken.

The petitioner, however, pointed out that at the first appellate stage it had already made a pre-deposit of about ₹23.85 lakh when the original demand was around ₹2.38 crore.

After the first appeal, the demand had been reduced to about ₹40 lakh, meaning that the required 20% pre-deposit for the second appeal would be ₹8 lakh, an amount already more than covered by the earlier deposit.

The high court accepted the petitioner’s counsel Adv. Amrita Sinha and Adv. Shweta Suman’s contention.

It observed that the earlier pre-deposit exceeded the statutory requirement computed on the reduced demand. Therefore, according to the bench of ChiefJustice M.S. Sonak and Justice Rajesh Shankar, there was no justification to require any additional pre-deposit for filing the appeal before the Tribunal.

The Court directed that if the assessee files an appeal within four weeks, the Tribunal should entertain and decide it on merits without raising limitation objections.

The Bench also clarified that if the electronic system does not accept the appeal within the permitted time, the assessee may file the appeal in physical form, and the same must be accepted without insisting on any fresh pre-deposit.

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