Manjeet Cotton Pvt. Ltd. Vs Commissioner of State Tax (Gujarat High Court)
Condoned the delay in period of limitation for filing the appeal by the assessee
The Hon’ble Gujarat High Court in the matter of M/s. Manjeet Cotton Pvt. Ltd. v. Commissioner of State Tax [R/Special Civil Application No. 16857 of 2022 dated December 15, 2022] condoned the delay of period of limitation to file appeal before the Appellate Authority by the assessee. Held that, assessee has the right to challenge the assessment order by appealing to the Appellate Authority, and such right should be exercised to maintain the possibility of addressing a larger issue.
Facts:
M/s. Manjeet Cotton Pvt. Ltd. (“the Petitioner”) is involved in the business of trading of cotton bales, cotton yarn, cottonseed oil cake, etc.
A Show Cause Notice (“SCN”) under Section 73 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (“the CGST Act”) along with summary thereof in Form GST DRC – 01 dated January 13, 2022 was issued by the Revenue Department (“the Respondent”) in which it was alleged that the Petitioner had received certain nil rated or exempted supplies, but had not reversed the Input Tax Credit (“ITC”) related to the said supply and a demand of INR 36,15,696/- with an interest of 24%p.a. was made.
The Petitioner submitted a reply in Form GST DRC – 06 requesting the Respondent to grant adjournment of 30 days to submit a detailed reply. However, the Respondent granted adjournment of 15 days, to which the Petitioner failed to reply.
Subsequently, search Proceedings under Section 67(2) of the CGST Act was carried out at the registered premise of the Petitioner on February 17, 2022 and summons were issued and on February 19, 2022 the Petitioner’s statement was recorded. The Petitioner reversed the ITC accounting to INR 1,19,149/- along with the interest pertaining to the year 2017-18 to 2020-21.
The Respondent in the month of June, 2022, debited the Electronic Credit Ledger (“ECL”) of the Petitioner against the demand raised vide its Order dated February 21, 2022 (“the Impugned Order”) and Notice under Section 79(1)(c) of the CGST Act was also issued and the manager of the bank was asked to pay the amount of INR 13,74,981/- on behalf of the Petitioner, against which the manager froze all debit transactions from the bank account of the Petitioner.
The petitioner was of view that the issue was resolved as the Petitioner had reversed the tax along with the interest and penalty. However, the Petitioner received a communication from its bank on June 21, 2022, indicating that the demand had been raised electronically and the bank was asked to adjust it.
Being aggrieved, this petition has been filed.
Issue:
Whether the Petitioner be allowed to appeal before the Appellate Authority even when it was beyond the period of appeal?
Held:
The Hon’ble Gujarat High Court in R/Special Civil Application No. 16857 of 2022 held as under:
