Tvl Voylla Fashions Private Limited Vs Assistant Commissioner (ST) (FAC) (Madras High Court)
The Madras High Court allowed a writ petition challenging the validity of Notification No. 09/2023–Central Tax dated 31.03.2023 and Notification No. 56/2023–Central Tax dated 28.12.2023, which extended the time limit for issuance of orders under Section 73 of the CGST Act. By consent of parties, the petition was taken up and disposed of at the admission stage. Both sides agreed that the issue stood squarely covered by an earlier common order of the Court dated 12.06.2025 passed in a batch of writ petitions.
In the earlier decision, the Court had held that tax authorities are entitled to exclusion of the period from 15.03.2020 to 28.02.2022 while computing limitation under Section 73(2) and 73(10), in terms of directions issued by the Supreme Court under Article 142 of the Constitution. However, the Court categorically declared Notification Nos. 09/2023 and 56/2023 as vitiated and illegal. The reasons recorded included that the notifications curtailed the limitation period otherwise available pursuant to the Supreme Court’s orders, were based on erroneous assumptions regarding the applicable limitation, and were arbitrary in nature. The Court further held that the notifications extinguished vested rights of action available to the authorities, were issued without proper examination of relevant material, and, in the case of Notification No. 56/2023, were issued either prior to or without valid recommendations of the GST Council, rendering them contrary to statutory mandate.
