Pankajam Plastics Vs Muthiah Athinarayanan & Ors (GSTAT Chennai)
Summary: The Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal, Chennai Bench considered whether Filing No. 2026133/10100/0064 filed by Pankajam Plastics was maintainable when the appeal before the First Appellate Authority had not yet resulted in an order.
The Appellant/Applicant submitted that it had filed an appeal before the First Appellate Authority in APL-01 and also filed the GSTAT appeal in APL-05 on the same day, 19.03.2026, stating that the Department was undertaking recovery proceedings. The Respondent-State Government drew the Bench’s attention to its submissions dated 28.07.2026 and, particularly, to APL-02, which had been rejected on 24.06.2026 by the Deputy Commissioner, CT Appeals, being the First Appellate Authority.
The Registry raised a defect because the GSTAT appeal had been filed before the rejection order of the First Appellate Authority came into existence. After hearing both sides and examining the records, the Bench found that Filing No. 2026133/10100/0064 had been filed on 19.03.2026, whereas no order under Section 112(1) of the CGST Act, 2017 was then in existence because the First Appellate Authority had not yet passed its order.
The central question before the Bench was whether an aggrieved person could approach GSTAT under Section 112 of the CGST Act, 2017 in the absence of an order passed under Section 107 or Section 108.
