Appellate Authority Must Verify Documents Before Reversing Refund | HC

Case Details  : Hitachi Energy India Ltd. vs. Union of India - [2025] 178 taxmann.com 401 (Gujarat)

Judiciary and Counsel Details

• Bhargav D. karia & Pranav Trivedi, JJ
• Anand Nainawati, Adv. for the Petitioner.
• CB Gupta, Adv. for the Respondent.

Facts of the Case

The petitioner filed a refund claim under the category ‘Export of Goods/Services without payment of Tax’ in terms of Section 54 of the CGST/Gujarat GST Act, along with Bank Realisation Certificates (BRC) and other relevant documents evidencing receipt of foreign remittance for zero-rated services. The refund claim was verified and sanctioned by the department after review of the submitted documents. Subsequently, the Appellate Authority reversed the refund sanction on the ground that details of the BRC and other supporting documents were not mentioned. The petitioner submitted that the BRC and relevant documents had been filed along with a statement containing invoice numbers and dates, and that the documents were verified during the original sanction of the refund. The matter was accordingly placed before the High Court.

High Court Held

The High Court held that the Appellate Authority failed to consider that the petitioner had submitted the BRC along with relevant documents and that these were verified by the department during the original refund sanction. The Court observed that the Appellate Authority also ignored the details recorded in the refund sanction order regarding the documents uploaded by the petitioner and their verification. Accordingly, the impugned order reversing the refund sanction was contrary to the records and was quashed and set aside. The High Court directed that the original refund order be restored.