Arjun Enterprise Vs Union of India (Calcutta High Court)
Calcutta High Court in Arjun Enterprise vs. Union of India addressed the dismissal of a GST appeal on limitation grounds, despite procedural lapses by the tax authorities. The petitioner, engaged in manufacturing and trading scrap materials, faced a tax demand from the GST department for discrepancies in returns from FY 2017-18 and 2018-19. The petitioner challenged the tax demand but encountered hurdles when the adjudication order was not uploaded on the GST portal, preventing the online filing of an appeal. Despite multiple attempts to resolve the issue, the department initiated recovery proceedings without making the order accessible online. The petitioner eventually filed a physical appeal, which was dismissed as time-barred.
The court observed that the GST department’s delay in uploading the order had directly affected the petitioner’s ability to file an appeal within the prescribed timeframe. The petitioner had acted in good faith by physically filing the appeal and making a pre-deposit, yet the appellate authority failed to consider the procedural shortcomings before rejecting the appeal. The court emphasized that statutory limitations should not be rigidly applied when genuine hardships arise, particularly when the delay was caused by administrative inefficiencies.
Relying on S.K. Chakraborty & Sons vs. Union of India [2024] 159 taxman.com 259 (Calcutta), the court reiterated that Section 107 of the GST Act, 2017 does not expressly exclude the applicability of Section 5 of the Limitation Act, 1963. The precedent established that in cases where extenuating circumstances exist, appellate authorities have the discretion to condone delays beyond the prescribed 60-day period. The court found that the appellate authority had erred in rejecting the appeal without considering the condonation request, which warranted judicial intervention.
