Otsuka Pharmaceutical India Pvt. Ltd. Vs Union of India & Ors. (Gujarat High Court)
In a recent judgment, the Gujarat High Court addressed the issue of rejection of GST appeals due to non or delayed submission of certified copies of uploaded orders. The case involved Otsuka Pharmaceutical India Pvt. Ltd., a company engaged in the manufacture and export of pharmaceutical products, registered under the GST Act.
The petitioner had applied for a refund on the GST portal within the prescribed time limit. However, after receiving a show-cause notice and subsequent rejection of part of the refund claim by the adjudicating authority, the petitioner appealed online under Section 107 of the CGST Act. Despite submitting certified copies of the Order-in-Original during the appeal process, the appellate authority rejected the appeals citing a delay ranging from 71 to 106 days.
The crux of the dispute lay in Rule 108(3) of the Central Goods & Service Tax Rules, 2017, which mandated the submission of certified copies of the orders appealed against within seven days of filing the appeal. The appellate authority relied on this rule to reject the appeals.
However, the petitioner argued that Rule 108(3) did not apply in their case since they had preferred online appeals based on the uploaded Order-in-Original, and thus the date of submission of the certified copy should not be considered as the date of filing the appeal.
