The Madras High Court has condoned the delay of 210 days in filing goods and service tax (GST) appeal subject to 25% of pre-deposit.
The bench of Justice Krishnan Ramasamy has observed that the reason assigned by the petitioner for the delay in filing the appeal against the assessment order, appeared to be genuine. For filing the appeal, the writ petitioner had already paid 10% of statutory pre-deposit. Since there occurred a huge delay, petitioner was directed to pay 15% in addition to the 10% pre-deposit for condonation of delay.
During the year 2018-19, the petitioner had filed their monthly returns GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B. While filing the return in Form GSTR-3B, the Input Tax Credit available in the IGST column in excess of Rs.13,78,837/- was wrongly adjusted towards the CGST and SGST dues.
Therefore, the department observed that the Input Tax Credit declared through GSTSR-3B is wrongly claimed and the same was discharged through GSTR-3B returns leading to short payment of tax and issued a show cause notice dated 31.01.2024 proposing demand of tax of Rs.7,17,574/- towards CGST and Rs.7,17,574/- towards SGST along with interest and penalty.
The show cause notice was only uploaded in the GST Portal and no physical intimation was made to the petitioner. Therefore, the petitioner had no occasion to open the GST Portal. Even the order was also uploaded in the view additional notices column, which is a violation of the principle of natural justice.
The petitioner contended that since the show cause notice and the impugned order were uploaded in the GST portal, the petitioner was not aware of the same and when the petitioner preferred an appeal before the department, by depositing 10% of the disputed tax demand in respect of the impugned assessment period, the same was rejected on the ground of delay for nearly 210 days.
The court directed the Appellate Authority to take the appeal on record without insisting upon the limitation aspect, subject to the payment of 15% of the disputed tax demand in addition to 10% statutory pre-deposit, i.e totally 25% of the disputed tax amount in respect of the assessment.
Case Details
Case Title: M/s.Akshaya Meditech Versus .Deputy Commissioner (CT) Appeal, Kanchipuram
Case No.: W.P.No.8051 of 2025 and W.M.P.No.9016 of 2025
Date: 11.03.2025
Counsel For Petitioner: Sriram.L
Counsel For Respondent: K.Vasanthamala
