Nutech Jetting Equipment India Private Ltd. And Another Vs Union of India Through Its Secretary Ministry And 4 Others (Allahabad High Court)
The Allahabad High Court heard a writ petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution challenging an order dated 29.12.2023. The petitioner sought quashing of the impugned order and also requested directions to the concerned authorities to refund Goods and Services Tax (GST) collected from them, along with interest and damages. The refund claim related to sanitation work contracts executed at various sites of the respondent department and relied on Notification No. 25 of 2012 dated 20.06.2012 and Notification No. 6 of 2014 dated 11.07.2014.
The impugned order had rejected the petitioner’s claim primarily on the ground that the contractor had accepted full payment without any protest. According to the authority, once the payment had been accepted without demur, the petitioner could not raise any further claim.
The petitioner opposed this finding and submitted that the claim had been accepted subject to GST-related claims on several occasions. Reference was made to a letter dated 16.01.2020 issued by the contractor to support this contention.
The Court also examined the Joint Procedure Order (JPO) dated 21.01.2018. Clause 5 of the JPO provided that the contractor’s tax liability prior to the implementation of GST was required to be assessed regardless of whether the taxes had actually been paid. The order further indicated that the overall GST impact, after assessing tax liabilities under the pre-GST and post-GST regimes, could result in either reimbursement to the contractor or recovery from the contractor.
