Calcutta HC Sends Back Bajaj’s Appeal to GST Authority Over ITC Legality Lapse

The Calcutta High Court, after discovering that the authority had not been able to analyse the legality of the Input Tax Credit (ITC) availed, remanded the appeal of Bajaj Wheels to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) adjudicating authority. By keeping the case pending, no effective objective shall be served, the court cited.

The applicant, Bajaj Wheels Private Limited, has submitted a petition for a writ petition urgently. On 13 June 2025, an order was passed, but the case needs to come under the heading To Be Mentioned to seek clarification. From that time, the respective parties are allowed to reargue the case.

The order was contested by the applicant, which the appellate authority passed on 18th December, 2024, permitting the same appeal that comes from a plea furnished via the department from the order on 30th October 2023 against the dropping of the procedding started as per the SCN cum demand notice on 12th October 20222 against the applicant the instant writ petition has been submitted.

The applicant does not have sufficient notice of the appeal to appear before the appellate authority, and the appeal petition, including the appeal grounds, was not furnished. The advocates appeared for the respective parties after hearing and marking that the appellate authority had passed an order on December 2024, it is unclear whether the order impugned in the plea had been set aside, as functional part of the order merely records that the appeal has been permitted, it was asked that the advocate representing the respondents to carry instruction in this case.

No effective objective has been discovered by the court that shall be served by upholding the case pending. But, the consequential direction of setting aside of the order passed via the adjudicating authority is not explicit from the impugned order, as the appellate authority in has been pleased to record that the adjudicating authority has not able to analyze the legality of GST ITC taken via the respondent who is the applicant under the various tables and the applicant also does not have furnished any clarification nor attended the personal hearing and also by noting that the adjudicating authority has unable to concern the different issues engaged and having not passed a speaking order, the said appeal was authorized.

Additional enquiries like this need to be made as may be required to take a strong decision, but it hasn’t been accomplished. The legality of the ITC availed does not get analysed by the adjudicating authority; the appellate authority merely noted this. The aforesaid order is against the provisions of Section 107(11) and (12) of the said.

While setting aside the order impugned, along with the order passed by the adjudicating authority on 30th October, 2023, a single bench of Justice Raja Basu Chowdhury allows the case to stand remanded back to the adjudicating authority for a fresh decision based on merits.

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For the above, the adjudicating authority must determine within 8 weeks from the date of communication of this order via issuing a relevant notice of hearing and by providing a chance of hearing before the applicant.