Aurobindo Pharma Limited Vs State of Telangana (Telangana High Court)
The batch of writ petitions challenged the rejection of refund claims relating to tax paid on zero-rated supplies for different tax periods. The petitions covered refund claims for October 2020, February 2021, November 2021, August 2022, January 2023 and June 2023 against respective Orders-in-Original and Orders-in-Appeal. The High Court noted that, in an earlier batch of writ petitions involving the same petitioner, a Division Bench had considered an identical issue. In that case, it was recorded that the respondent State, relying on the Gujarat High Court decisions in Atul Limited and Patson Papers Private Limited, was inclined to reconsider the matter. The earlier Division Bench had observed that, without further examining the legal position, the impugned Order-in-Original and appellate order were set aside and the matter was remanded to the original authority for a fresh decision in accordance with law after providing an opportunity of hearing within four months. As both parties agreed that the issue involved in the present batch was identical and concerned the same assessee, the High Court followed the earlier Division Bench decision, allowed the writ petitions, remanded the matters to the original authority for fresh decision in accordance with law after giving the petitioner an opportunity of hearing, and directed that the exercise be completed within four months. No order as to costs was made, and pending miscellaneous applications stood closed.
