Rajasthan Mineral Traders Vs Union of India (Rajasthan High Court)
The Rajasthan High Court considered a writ petition seeking condonation of delay and a direction to entertain an appeal against the order dated 29.08.2023 passed by the Joint Commissioner (State Tax), Circle-A, Enforcement Wing-C, Jaipur, raising a GST demand of Rs.30,82,368/- on payments towards dead rent, royalty, DMFT and RSMET under the reverse charge mechanism. The petitioner stated that the appeal could not be filed because the online appeal status showed it as time-barred under Section 107 of the CGST/RGST Act, 2017. The petitioner submitted that the proprietor was occupied with his daughter’s marriage, was unaware of the assessment order and became aware of the demand only after receiving demand calls in January. By then, both the prescribed appeal period and the period within which delay could be condoned had expired. The petitioner contended that the delay was neither intentional nor attributable to negligence and resulted from circumstances beyond control.
The petitioner relied on Division Bench judgments of the Rajasthan High Court in M/s M R Traders v. UOI, M/s Molana Construction Company v. Central Goods and Service Tax Department & Ors, Man Singh Tanwar v. Commissioner, Central goods and Services Tax Department & Ors., RPC PSIPL 3V Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors and RPC PSIPL 3V Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors. The respondents opposed the petition, contending that the impugned order was rightly passed and that the appeal was barred by limitation.
