The Rajasthan High Court has stated that a taxpayer should be provided a statutory right of appeal where the delay in filing takes place because of situations beyond its control, especially when the adjudication order was allegedly ineffectively communicated, and no chance of a personal hearing was furnished.
The Bench of Justice Arun Monga and Justice Bhuwan Goyal has condoned the late filing of the GST appeal and asked the appellate authority to entertain and determine the appeal on the merits.
The dispute arose from an Order-in-Original dated December 26, 2025, whereby the Deputy Commissioner, State Tax, Circle-B, Bhiwadi, raised a GST demand of ₹75.38 lakh for the FY 2021-22. The demand was grounded on allegations concerning excess claim of ITC, non-payment of tax under the Reverse Charge Mechanism (RCM), and differences detected during scrutiny of GST returns.
Applicant said that it could not submit the statutory appeal within the mentioned limitation period because the adjudication order was never communicated appropriately.
The applicant claimed that the order had only been uploaded on the GST portal and that, having already submitted a detailed response without being granted a personal hearing, it assumed that no final order had been passed till now. The company stated that it came to know about the order later, till the time the GST portal no longer allowed filing of the appeal as it had become time-barred.
The applicant said that the delay was bona fide and was caused by the failure of the authorities to communicate the adjudication order and to furnish the mandatory chance of personal hearing under section 75(4) of the CGST/RGST Act, 2017.
It stated that on getting the information of the order, the applicant took action to contest it; however, the statutory appellate mechanism had already become unavailable due to lapse of the limitation period shown on the GST portal.
Before the court, the applicant placed reliance upon a series of earlier Division Bench judgments of the Rajasthan High Court, including M/s M R Traders, Molana Construction Company, Man Singh Tanwar, and RPC PSIPL JV, where similar relief had been provided by directing late GST appeals to be heard on merits after condoning delay in exceptional situations.
The State countered the writ petition, claiming that the adjudication order had been passed validly and that the appeal was barred by the statutory limitation specified u/s 107 of the GST Act.
The Division Bench stated that although the appellate authority is forced by the limitation provisions included in Section 107 of the CGST/RGST Act, the peculiar facts of the matter show that the applicant had been prevented from filing the appeal for reasons beyond its control.
The court said that in these situations, the taxpayer will be harmed when refusing the examination on the merits of the appeal.
The bench observed that the Rajasthan High Court had adopted the same approach in various earlier judgments and did not discover any reason to depart from that settled position and considered it appropriate to extend similar relief in the current case.
Read Also: Rajasthan HC Sets Aside Rejection of Delayed GST Appeal, Orders Fresh Hearing
The Rajasthan High Court permitted the writ petition and condoned the delay in submitting the GST appeal and asked the appellate authority to consider the appeal and adjudicate it on the merits.
The Court mentioned that, on the condition that the applicant submits the appeal within 30 days from the date of uploading of the High Court’s order on the Court’s website, that benefit will be given.
| Case Title | M/s Royal Petro And Chemicals Vs State Of Rajasthan |
| Case No. | D.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 13504/2026 |
| For the Petitioner | Ms Shradha Agarwal, Mr Aryan Singh Chouhan |
| For Respondent | Ms Mahi Yadav, Ms Chelsi Agarwal |
| Rajasthan High Court | Read Order |
