Supreme Court directs Assessee to Opt for Appeal Under CGST as Ruled by Gujarat HC [Read Judgement]

The Supreme Court directed the assessee to file a GST ( Goods and Services Tax ) appeal under the Central Goods and Services Tax ( CGST ) as ruled by the Gujarat High Court (HC).

M/s Lalit Metal Corporation, the assessee, filed the petition against the final judgment and order dated 13-03-2025 in SCA No. 1231/2025 passed by the High Court of Gujarat at Ahmedabad. The High Court declined to entertain the writ petitions on the ground that the assessee has an alternative efficacious remedy of filing a statutory appeal.

A two judge bench of Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice R. Mahadevan observed that “we see no good reason to interfere with the order passed by the High Court. It shall be open for the assessee to prefer statutory appeal in accordance with law. If the issue of limitation arises, the Appellate Authority shall take into consideration the fact that the assessee was pursuing his remedy before the High Court and later before this Court.”

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The court dismissed the petition in light of the above observation.

In view of the decision of Apex Court in the case of Assistant Commissioner of State Tax and others vs. M/s. Commercial Steel Limited, reported in 2021 that, alternative efficacious remedy is available to the petitioner to challenge the impugned orders-in-original and therefore, the petitioner is relegated to avail such opportunity.

The Apex Court in appeal observed that the Respondent had a remedy under Section 107 of the CGST Act which provides for Appeal to Appellate Authority, instead of availing the same, it opted to institute a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution.

It was observed that although existence of an alternate remedy does not absolutely bar the maintainability of the writ petition, such petition can only be entertained in exceptional circumstances like that of breach of fundamental rights, violation of principles of natural justice, an excess of jurisdiction or challenge to the vires of the statute or delegated legislation.

The High Court disposed of the petitions, which are not entertained only on the ground of alternative remedy available to the petitioner.

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