Rungta And Sons Vs Union of India And Others (Uttarakhand High Court)
In Rungta And Sons Vs Union of India And Others, the Uttarakhand High Court considered a writ petition seeking refund of GST amounting to Rs.1,10,23,075 deducted at the time of purchase of rejected wheat and paddy seeds from Uttarakhand Seeds and Tarai Development Corporation Ltd. in 2017.
The petitioner contended that GST had been wrongly deducted from its security deposit by the Corporation. According to the petitioner, an advance ruling in the case of M/s Sam Overseas had clarified that rejected wheat seeds or rejected paddy seeds do not attract GST unless they are sold in unit containers bearing a registered brand name. The petitioner specifically asserted that the rejected seeds purchased by it were not sold in unit containers or under any brand name and therefore no GST was payable on such transactions.
The petitioner had earlier sought refund of the deducted GST amount from the Corporation. As the amount was not refunded, the petitioner approached the High Court through an earlier writ petition, which was disposed of on 13.08.2020 with a direction to the Corporation to decide the petitioner’s representation dated 29.09.2019.
Pursuant to the Court’s direction, the Corporation passed an order dated 16.10.2020. In that order, the Corporation did not dispute that the GST amount deducted from the petitioner was liable to be refunded. However, the Corporation stated that it had already submitted refund applications before the State Tax Department, including an application dated 01.06.2019 and another representation dated 16.08.2020, but the refund had not yet been granted by the department.
