Revenue Authorities obligated to inform assessee about filing of appeal on wrong GST portal

Tropical Beverages Pvt. Ltd. Vs Union of India and Others (Tripura High Court)

The Hon’ble Tripura High Court in Tropical Beverages Pvt. Ltd. v. the Union of India & Ors. [W.P(C) No. 701 of 2021 dated January 4, 2022] quashed the order of the Appellate Authority refusing the appeal filed by the assessee on the wrong GST portal. Further held that, uploading of an appeal may be before the wrong portal, but it is obligatory on the part of the authorities concerned in such an event to bring it to the notice of the assessee that the appeal has been filed before the wrong authority so that the necessary action can be taken.

Facts:

Tropical Beverages Pvt. Ltd. (“the Petitioner”) has filed this petition, being aggrieved against the order of the Revenue Department (“the Respondent”) refusing to accept the Petitioner’s appeal filed in FORM GST APL-01, which was wrongly uploaded on the Central GST Portal by the Petitioner instead of State GST Portal.

Issue:

Whether the Petitioner’s appeal can be refused due to uploading of the appeal in wrong forum?

Held:

The Hon’ble Tripura High Court in W.P(C) No. 701 of 2021 dated January 4, 2022 held as under:

• Noted that, the Petitioner had also filed a hard copy before the Respondent but the Respondent refused to accept the same as an appeal purportedly since on verification of the portal of the State GST no such appeal was found thereon.
• Observed that, the Petitioner had uploaded an appeal may be before the wrong portal but it is obligatory on the part of the authorities concerned in such an event to bring it to the notice of the Petitioner that the appeal has been filed before the wrong authority so that the Petitioner can take necessary action.
• Stated that, the Petitioner was unaware of uploading its appeal before the Central GST Portal instead of State GST Portal. Further noted that, the Respondent have now located the appeal filed by the Petitioner before the Central authorities.
• Directed the Petitioner, to file a fresh appeal and upload the before the appropriate authority i.e. the State GST Portal.
• Further directed the Respondent to condone the delay in filing the appeal, since the matter had been filed before a wrong forum.
• Further advised all Appellate Authority to inform the appellant or assessee in particular, by email about the error committed by them, in case the appeal is filed before the wrong forum, since all these facilities are fairly new and it requires time to carry out necessary corrections.

FULL TEXT OF THE JUDGMENT/ORDER of DELHI HIGH COURT

Heard learned counsel for the respective parties.

In the present case, it appears that the petitioner had filed an appeal in FORM GST APL-01 under Annexure-6 to the present writ petition. The said appeal had to be uploaded on the appropriate portal (Back Office Portal of the State GST, Appellate Authority). In paragraph-6 of the reply filed by the respondents no. 2 to 5 the following has been stated:

“6 That, with regard to the statements made in paragraph No. 5.5 to 5.7 of the Writ Petition, i say that, on 03.12.2020 the GST Appellate Authority passed an order by stating that the petitioner filed hard copy of the online appeal in Form GST APL-01 on 21.11.2020 against the order no.ZA1611190004604, dated 15.11.2019. But when the appeal has been searched on the dashboard in the BO Portal (Back Office Portal) of the State GST Appellate authority the appeal application in Form GST APL-01 was not found available o the dashboard in the Back Office Portal of the State GST appellate authority.

Further, on searching it is found that online appeal of the appellant namely M/s. Tropical Beverages Pvt. Ltd. having GSTN 16AAECT7016NIZ1 is found to be under the administrative office of the Central jurisdiction under Agartala Commissionerate, Tripura-1 Division, Agartala-I Range.

Due to this final acknowledgement was not issued by the State GST Appellate Court. Accordingly, the hardcopy of the appeal application is returned back. It is pertinent here that the petitioner filed the online appeal before the CGST Authority through online portal but the hardcopy of the online appeal has been filed before the State GST appellate authority. Due to this reason the final acknowledgement for filing appeal could not be issued and the copy was returned back to the petitioner. It is also necessary to mentioned here that the online appeal so filed by the petitioner cannot be accessed by the State GST appellate authority, it is accessible only by the CGST authority r by the jurisdictional offices of the CGST offices. In para no.5.7 the petitioner has misleaded the Court by stating that the online appeal has already been uploaded in the Back Office Portal of the State GST Appellate $XthorRty^t

It appears that the petitioner also filed a hard copy before the respondent Appellate authority but the Appellate authority under Annexure­7 refused to accept the same as an appeal purportedly since on verification of the portal of the State GST no such appeal was found thereon.

This Court need not enter into the niceties of law in this respect. Factually, the petitioner had uploaded an appeal may be before the wrong portal but it is obligatory on the part of the authorities concerned in such an event to bring it to the notice of the appellant that the appeal has been filed before the wrong authority so that the appellant can take necessary action in the said regard. It appears from the record that the appellant was unaware that it had uploaded its appeal before the Central Portal instead of State Portal of the GST. Admittedly, as noted in Para-6 hereinabove in the reply filed by the State GST authority, they have now located the appeal filed by the petitioner before the Central authorities. Accordingly, in view of such circumstances, this Court directs as follows:

(i) The petitioner shall file a fresh appeal and upload the said appeal before the appropriate authority i.e. the State Portal of the GST.

(ii) Since the matter had been filed before a wrong forum, the delay in filing the appeal shall be condoned.

(iii) All Appellate authority, Central as well as State are advised that in the event people filed appeals before the wrong forum, the appellant or assessee in particular, ought to be informed by email about the error committed by them since all these facilities are fairly new and it requires time to carry out necessary corrections.

Writ petition is disposed of. Orders under Annexure-6 and 7 stand quashed for enabling the petitioner to file a fresh appeal.

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