Multireach Media Private Limited & Anr. Vs State of West Bengal and Ors. (Calcutta High Court)
The petition concerned a challenge to an order dated 24 July 2025 passed by the Appellate Authority under Section 107 of the WBGST/CGST Act, which dismissed the petitioners’ appeal against an adjudication order dated 26 September 2023 on the ground of delay. The petitioners argued that they were unaware of the adjudication order because it had been uploaded on the GST portal under the “View Additional Notices and Orders” tab rather than the “View Notices and Orders” tab. Their application for condonation of delay was placed before the Appellate Authority, and they contended that other similarly situated taxpayers had been granted relief by the Court in comparable circumstances. They relied on two earlier Calcutta High Court judgments: Mohammad Hasim Khan v. State of West Bengal and Sukumar Kundu v. Union of India, where belated appeals were permitted due to similar difficulties arising from the GST portal’s structure.
The petitioners also submitted that because the GST Appellate Tribunal had not become functional, there was no alternative statutory forum available to challenge the adjudication order. The State’s counsel supported the Appellate Authority’s decision, arguing that the petitioners had responded to the show-cause notice and therefore could not claim lack of knowledge regarding the adjudication proceedings.
