Dinesh Infraprojects Private Limited & anr. Vs State of West Bengal & ors. (Calcutta High Court)
The Calcutta High Court, in the case of Dinesh Infraprojects Private Limited & anr. Vs State of West Bengal & ors., dismissed a revision application filed by the State against an order from a GST appellate authority. The state sought to revise the appellate order by invoking Section 108 of the WBGST/CGST Act, 2017. The state argued that the appellate authority’s order was erroneous because it failed to consider certain material facts, particularly the inadmissibility of Input Tax Credit (ITC) under Section 16(4) of the Act. This, the state claimed, resulted in a significant tax mismatch of over Rs. 1.11 crore across IGST, CGST, and SGST for the period 2020-2021.
However, the court found that the original show-cause notice issued under Section 73 of the Act did not include any demand for IGST and had different figures for CGST and SGST. The court referenced the principle that what cannot be done directly should not be permitted to be done indirectly. It held that the power under Section 108 of the Act, which allows for the revision of erroneous orders, does not permit the revision authority to expand the scope of the original show-cause notice. The court’s holding was based on the fact that the state’s revision application was attempting to introduce new claims and improve upon the initial demand, which was beyond the permissible scope of a revisional power. The court concluded that such an action would be an unauthorized expansion of the original proceedings and therefore dismissed the application.
