In re ID Fresh Food (India) Pvt. Ltd (GST AAAR Karnataka)
We find that Section 100 of the CGST Act provides for an appeal to be filed by any party who is aggrieved by the advance ruling given by the lower Authority. In this case, the Department is not aggrieved by the ruling given by the lower Authority. It is also observed that there is no provision in the statute for a cross appeal/cross objection to be filed before the Appellate Authority in the appeal against the advance ruling. While Section 112(5) of the CGST Act explicitly provides that the party against whom an appeal has been filed before the GST Appellate Tribunal may file a cross objection/cross appeal notwithstanding that they may not have appealed against that order, there is no such similar provision for filing a cross appeal in the case of an appeal against an advance ruling. The Department has brought to our notice the fact that the advance ruling has been obtained by suppression of material facts and we are inclined to take cognisance of this information placed before us. It is trite law that when one comes for justice one should come with clean hands. This is not the case here. The Appellant is indeed guilty of having not revealed the fact of an investigation pending against them by the DGGI, Chennai Zonal Unit on the issue of classification of Parota at the time of applying for an advance ruling. We, therefore, invoke the provisions of Section 104 of the CGST Act, and declare the advance ruling order dated 22nd May 2020 as void ab initio.
