Umen Chandra Roy Vs Union of India (Calcutta High Court)
Summary: The Calcutta High Court, Circuit Bench at Jalpaiguri, considered a writ petition concerning the petitioner’s claim to avail Input Tax Credit under Section 39 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 read with Sub-Section 5 to Section 16. The petitioner had filed the relevant return up to November 30, 2021, which the Court noted was within the statutory cut-off contemplated under Section 16(5). The petitioner thereafter filed a rectification application on January 12, 2026 concerning the benefit of the ITC facility.
The judgment records that the petitioner’s rectification application was rejected by the revenue authority by order dated April 8, 2026. The rejection proceeded on the basis that the application had not been filed within the stipulated period referred to in the departmental circular/notification dated April 8, 2024 read with the circular dated October 15, 2024. The judgment itself records the applicable period in paragraph 3 as “six weeks”; however, the subsequent correction order dated August 21, 2026 expressly states that this expression was to be corrected to “six months” and that “communication” was to be corrected as “circular”.
The petitioner argued that the prescribed period could be extended because Sub-Section 5 to Section 16 did not itself prescribe a time limit for filing the rectification application. The revenue, on the other hand, submitted that the order in original dated March 6, 2024 had been served upon the petitioner on the same day by post and therefore disputed statements made in the writ petition.
