Hindustan Construction Company Limited Vs Union of India (Uttarakhand High Court)
Summary: In the case of Hindustan Construction Company Limited v. Union of India (WPMB No. 548 of 2024), the Uttarakhand High Court stayed the operation of Notification No. 56/2023, issued on December 28, 2023, which had extended the timelines for GST adjudication. The court scheduled the next hearing for February 25, 2025, alongside another related case (WPMB No. 523 of 2024). The stay order was significant as it halted the effect of the notification and all consequential orders that had been passed, questioning the validity of such extensions without proper legislative backing. This ruling comes in the context of a series of other high-profile court decisions that have similarly challenged the extended timelines. In a similar case, the Gauhati High Court had already declared the notification ultra vires, ruling that it lacked a recommendation from the GST Council and did not meet the criteria for invoking force majeure provisions. This decision has become a key precedent for taxpayers who argue that the extended timelines granted under the notification are legally flawed. Similarly, the Karnataka High Court recently stayed an order that involved erroneous refunds and mismatched returns, invoking the same notification under Section 168A of the CGST Act, which also lacked GST Council approval. These rulings, including the one from Uttarakhand, are pushing back on the extended deadlines, reflecting a broader legal challenge to the government’s handling of GST adjudications and the validity of such notifications without proper procedural compliance.
