Sadashiv S. Bennali Vs Assistant Commissioner of Commercial Taxes (Karnataka High Court)
The Karnataka High Court allowed W.P.No.100867/2026 and W.P.No.100887/2026 concerning adjustment of Goods and Service Tax (GST) consequent to the coming into force of the Central Goods and Service Taxes Act, 2017 (CGST Act). The petitioners sought directions to the respondents to consider their representations in terms of the judgment dated 11.04.2023 in Chandrashekharaiah Vs. State of Karnataka, compute and pay differential GST along with interest and penalty in respect of works executed by them, and execute supplementary agreements incorporating the applicable GST rate component under the revision notification amending Notification No. 11/2017-Central Tax (Rate), dated 28-6-2017.
It was jointly submitted by the learned counsel for the petitioners and the learned AGA that the issue concerned adjustment of GST following the introduction of the CGST Act. They referred to the earlier judgment in Chandrashekharaiah Vs. State of Karnataka, under which directions had been issued concerning calculation of pre-GST and post-GST works, applicable taxes, GST, input credit, differential tax and supplementary agreements.
The Court noted that the earlier judgment had subsequently been challenged before a Division Bench in Office of Principal Commissioner GST and Central Excise and others Vs R Chandrashekhar S/o. Ramaiah. The Division Bench partly allowed the appeals and held that the liability to pay GST was required to be determined strictly in accordance with the relevant statutory provisions. It further held that directions permitting revised returns contrary to statute and directions waiving penalty, interest or limitation for filing returns or revised returns could not be sustained. The Division Bench also held that the dispute regarding incremental tax burden was between the writ petitioners and their employers and that the direction to reimburse differential tax was to be construed as a direction to the concerned employers, not the tax authorities.
