Maguni Swain Vs Commissioner of Commercial Taxes (C.T.) and Goods & Service Tax (G.S.T.) (Orissa High Court)
The petitioner challenged an order dated 15 December 2020 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 periods from July 2017 to March 2018, which had subsequently been affirmed by the First Appellate Authority on 31 May 2024. The petitioner approached the Orissa High Court through a writ petition on the ground that although a statutory remedy of appeal was available under Section 112 of the GST Act before the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT), such remedy could not be exercised because the Tribunal had not been constituted and made functional at the relevant time.
The State authorities acknowledged that the GSTAT was not operational during the relevant period. However, they argued that the absence of a functional appellate forum did not dispense with the statutory requirement contained in Section 112(8) of the GST Act. Under this provision, an appellant is required to pay the admitted amount of tax, interest, fine, fee, and penalty in full, along with an amount equal to ten per cent of the remaining disputed tax amount, subject to the prescribed monetary ceiling, before filing an appeal.
