Brij Mohan Mangla Vs Union of India (Delhi High Court)
In this case In terms of Orders passed by Appellate Authority, the orders rejecting petitioner’s application for GST refund have been set aside. The Appellate Authority has also directed restoration of the petitioner’s GSTIN registration.
The record also indicates that the petitioner thereafter once again applied for the disbursement of refunds but the said applications were also not processed on the same pattern: first deficiency memos are issued and thereafter, the applications were rejected.
It is in the aforesaid context that the petitioner has filed the present petition.
The respondent has filed a counter affidavit once again reiterating its stand that the petitioner’s registration is liable to be cancelled as the petitioner was not found functioning at the given According to the respondent, if the petitioner’s registration is cancelled, the petitioner would no longer be a registered person and therefore, cannot apply for refund under Section 54(3) of the GST Act.
It is also stated that the concerned authority has reviewed the orders passed by the Appellate Authority and has directed that an appeals be filed challenging the orders passed by the Appellate Authority directing restoration of registration as well as grant of refunds.
It is stated that this is the only reason that the respondents have not processed the petitioner’s application for refund.
Admittedly, the appeals have not been filed by the respondents as yet. The time for preferring the appeal has also expired. However, the learned counsel for the respondent submits that the appeals would still be in time as in terms of the circular dated 03.12.2019, the time for the Department to prefer an appeal has been extended till three months after the date on which the Tribunal is constituted.
It is not necessary for this Court to examine the question whether appeals if and when preferred would be within time. Suffice it to state that the respondent has not secured any order which would, in any manner, stay the operation of the appellate orders passed by the Appellate Authority.
Clearly, it is not open for the respondents to ignore the orders passed by the Appellate Authority merely on the ground that it has decided to appeal those orders. It would be debilitating to the rule of law, if the respondents are permitted to withhold implementation of the orders passed by the authority in this manner.
The respondents are directed to forthwith process the petitioner’s claim for refunds including interest.
FULL TEXT OF THE JUDGMENT/ORDER OF DELHI HIGH COURT
1. The petitioner has filed the present petition inter alia praying that directions be issued to respondent No. 2 and 3 to disburse the refund for the period, May, 2019 to December, 2019, which, according to the petitioner, is payable in implementation of the order dated 20.09.202 1 passed by the Appellate Authority, Joint Commissioner (Appeals). The petitioner also claims interest on the amount of refund due.
2. The petitioner is engaged in the manufacturing of various types of liquid printing inks. The petitioner was registered under the Central Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017 (hereafter ‘the Act’) with registration No. 07AAOPB5908Q 176.
3. The petitioner claims that during the relevant period (that is, from May, 2019 to December, 2019), the petitioner was carrying on his business from the premises bearing the address A-80 Block, near Kasturi Ram Public School, DSIDC Industrial Area, Narela, Delhi 110040. The petitioner states that he now carries on the business under the name of M/s Standard Ink from the premises situated at Killa No. 4/24, Village Nathpur, Sonipat, Haryana.
4. It is the petitioner’s case that on account of an inverted duty structure, he could not fully utilise his input tax credit and consequently, the same had accumulated to an aggregate figure of ₹74,02,337/- for the period in question (May, 2019 to December, 2019).
5. In view of the above, the petitioner filed separate applications (six in number) for claiming refund. The details of these applications are as under:
