Super Service Point Vs Union of India & Ors. (Supreme Court of India)
The Supreme Court of India, while dealing with a special leave petition arising from a GST dispute, permitted the petitioner to withdraw the petition with liberty to file a statutory appeal under Section 107 of the Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. Accordingly, the special leave petition was dismissed as withdrawn, without any adjudication on merits.
Read HC Judgment in this Case: GST Section 74 Order Not Entertained in Writ Due to Alternate Appeal Remedy Under Section 107: Gujarat HC
The matter originated from proceedings before the Gujarat High Court, where the petitioner had challenged an Order-in-Original passed under Section 74 of the CGST Act, the consequential GST DRC-07 demand, and the related show cause notices. The petitioner contended that the adjudicating authority ought to have passed separate orders instead of a consolidated order covering the period from July 2017 to March 2022.
The High Court declined to entertain the writ petition on the ground that an effective alternative remedy was available under Section 107 of the GST Act. Relying on the Supreme Court’s decision in Assistant Commissioner of State Tax v. Commercial Steel Limited, the High Court reiterated that although the existence of an alternative remedy does not completely bar writ jurisdiction, such jurisdiction should be exercised only in exceptional circumstances, such as breach of fundamental rights, violation of natural justice, excess of jurisdiction, or challenge to the vires of a statute. As none of these exceptions were established, the High Court relegated the petitioner to the statutory appellate remedy and dismissed the writ petition without examining the merits.
