S. S. Enterprises Vs Union of India & Ors. (Patna High Court)
The Patna High Court, in the case of S. S. Enterprises Vs Union of India & Ors., examined the issue of the three-year limitation period under Section 73(10) of the GST Act for initiating proceedings. The case focused on the assessment year 2018-19 and questioned whether the limitation period should be calculated from the original due date for filing the annual return or the extended date. The petitioner argued that as per Rule 80 of the Central Goods and Services Rules, 2017, the due date for filing the annual return was 31st December 2019. The three-year period, as prescribed under Section 73(10), would thus end on 31st December 2022. Since the proceedings were initiated on 19th April 2024, the petitioner contended that they were time-barred.
The respondent, represented by the Additional Solicitor General (ASG), argued that the due date for filing the return had been extended multiple times, first to 31st October 2020 and then to 31st December 2020. The ASG also referred to the Supreme Court’s extension of limitation periods due to COVID-19, which extended the deadline for filing returns to 28th May 2022, meaning the three-year period would extend to 19th April 2024. However, the court found that Section 73(10) clearly specified that the limitation period starts from the original due date of filing the return, not from any extended dates.
