Orissa HC: Not Possible to Reject a GST Appeal Due to Non-provision of Certified Copies

The Orissa High Court in a recent ruling clarified that a Goods and Services Tax (GST) appeal cannot be cancelled on non-supply of certified copies. The petitioner, M/s. Ashish Kumar Kar has submitted the writ petition and sought to cancel Form GST APL-02 released by the opposite party no. 2 on 17.05.2022 and the directive given by the opposite party no. 4 under Section 63 of the Orissa Goods and Services Tax (OGST) Act.

The counsel for the petitioner, Mr. R.P. Kar argued that an appeal dated 28.06.2021 was preferred by the petitioner questioning the directive of determination of tax dated 09.04.2021. However, it was cancelled on 17.05.2022 because of the non-supply of a certified copy of the directive.

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He further argued that concerning the directive given by the Apex Court because of COVID-19, the cancellation of the appeal could not have been based merely on the delay in filing.

Similarly, the appeal filed by the petitioner was rejected by the authorities as a routine procedure on the mere grounds of such an insignificant reason. Moreover, the directive for cancelling has been given without providing any chance of a hearing to the petitioner.

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The counsel for the Revenue Department, Mr Sunil Mishra argued that the amendment made in the Odisha Goods and Service Tax Rules, 2017 has already been informed on 31.12.2022 at which point Sub Rule (3) of Rule 108 has been modified.

The argumentation was raised by them that though the application was submitted on 28.06.2021, it was cancelled for the reason of non-filing of the certified copy. Hence, there is no discrepancy clearly in the view of the directive itself, in order to bring the court’s interference as the cancellation of the GST appeal is well understood.

The Division bench of Justice Dr B.R. Sarangi and Justice Murahari Sri Raman noted that nothing has been placed on record to that extent and mechanically the same has been cancelled showing a non-supply of certified copies.

The court overruled the directive and accepted the petition and reverted the issue back to the appellate authority for a better decision.