Chandrakanta Parida Vs State Tax Officer (Orissa High Court)
The Orissa High Court disposed of a writ petition challenging an order dated 29.12.2022 passed under Section 74 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and the Odisha Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 for the tax period April 2021 to March 2022, along with the appellate order dated 17.10.2024 affirming the same. The petitioner approached the High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution on the ground that the statutory appellate remedy under Section 112 of the GST Act before the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT) was unavailable because the Tribunal had not been constituted and made functional at the relevant time.
The State authorities accepted that the GSTAT was non-functional at the relevant point of time but argued that the absence of a functioning Tribunal did not exempt an aggrieved person from complying with the mandatory pre-deposit requirement under Section 112(8) of the GST Act. The provision requires an appellant to deposit the admitted amount of tax, interest, fine, fee, and penalty in full, along with an additional sum equal to ten percent of the disputed tax amount, subject to a maximum limit of twenty crore rupees, before filing an appeal.
