Selva Vilas Jewellery Vs Superintendent of GST and Central Excise (Madras High Court)
The writ petition was filed by a registered taxpayer challenging an order passed by the GST Department under the Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 / Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, by which the petitioner’s claim for Input Tax Credit (ITC) was reversed and the petitioner was directed to pay tax, penalty, and interest. The reversal was on the ground that the ITC claim was barred by limitation under Section 16(4) of the CGST Act.
At the hearing, both the petitioner’s counsel and the respondent’s counsel submitted that the issue raised in the present writ petition was squarely covered by an earlier common order of the Madras High Court dated 17.10.2024 passed in a batch of writ petitions. The Court, in that earlier decision, had considered cases where registered dealers had filed GSTR-1 returns in time but were unable to file GSTR-3B returns within the prescribed period due to difficulties such as financial constraints arising from COVID-19 lockdowns, health-related issues, and fire accidents. Because of these delays, the ITC claims were not raised within the original statutory timeline.
In those cases, the Department had issued show cause notices proposing reversal of ITC and had confirmed the proposals by passing assessment orders directing payment of tax, penalty, and interest, without considering the reasons for delay or the subsequent statutory developments. The Court noted that after the filing of those writ petitions, significant legislative and administrative developments took place.
