Nand Kishore Garg Vs Assistant Commissioner (Uttarakhand High Court)
Summary: The Uttarakhand High Court quashed the order dated 30.06.2026 rejecting Nand Kishore Garg’s rectification application concerning the Order-in-Original dated 29.08.2024. The petitioner had filed the rectification application on 17.01.2025 within the time permitted under Notification No. 22/2024-CT dated 08.10.2024. Earlier, the High Court had directed the authority to decide the application within eight weeks. Nevertheless, the Assistant Commissioner rejected it as time-barred, reasoning that the prescribed period for passing the rectification order had elapsed. The High Court held that since the rectification application itself had been filed within time, the competent authority could not refuse to consider it on merits merely because more than three months had passed after its filing. The Court interpreted Clause 4 of Notification No. 22/2024-CT as prescribing an endeavour-based timeline: the authority is to decide the application, “as far as possible,” within three months. Expiry of that period does not render the authority functus officio or extinguish its power to decide a timely application. Finding substance in the petitioner’s challenge, the High Court quashed the rejection order and remitted the matter to the Assistant Commissioner, CGST Division, Rudrapur, with a direction to decide the rectification application on merits within three months.
