Amolika Vs Union of India (Rajasthan High Court)
Summary: The Rajasthan High Court considered a writ petition seeking condonation of a 101-day delay in filing an appeal against the Order-in-Original dated 25.02.2025, which raised a GST demand of Rs. 14,74,148/- for Financial Year 2020-2021 on account of alleged excess availment of Input Tax Credit. The appeal was filed on 04.10.2025, but the Appellate Authority, by order dated 02.01.2026, dismissed it as time-barred on the ground that it lacked power to condone the delay. The writ petition was filed on 18.04.2026.
The Court noted that two separate adjudication orders had initially been passed for the same Financial Year 2020-2021. The first Order-in-Original dated 11.07.2024 raised a demand of Rs. 13,12,928/- based on an alleged discrepancy between outward supplies declared in GSTR-3B and supplies reflected in E-way bills. The subsequent Order-in-Original dated 25.02.2025 raised a separate demand of Rs. 14,74,148/- on the stated ground of excess availment of Input Tax Credit. Respondent No. 5 subsequently passed a suo motu rectification order dated 10.09.2025 withdrawing and setting aside the earlier order dated 11.07.2024, leaving the order dated 25.02.2025 as the operative adjudication order.
The petitioner submitted that the delay was bona fide and occurred because the show cause notice dated 22.11.2024 and the Order-in-Original dated 25.02.2025 had been uploaded on the GST portal under “Additional Notices and Orders” instead of “Notices and Orders” and had never been served manually or in hard copy. According to the petitioner, knowledge of the demand of Rs. 14,74,148/- was obtained only when the Department recovered the amount from the petitioner’s bank account. The petitioner also contended that the Order-in-Original had been passed in violation of Section 75(4) of the CGST/RGST Act, 2017 and principles of natural justice because no personal hearing had been granted.
