Appellate Authority Rightly Dismissed Appeal which was Filed After 209 Days of Order Cancelling GST Registration: HC

Case Details: Penuel Nexus (P.) Ltd. v. Additional Commissioner, Headquarters (Appeals) - [2023] 152 taxmann.com 208 (Kerala)

Judiciary and Counsel Details

• • C.S. Dias, J.
  • Georgie Simon, Basil Chandy Vavachan, Tresa Augustine, Aiswarya T.S. & Biju .C. Abraham, Advs. for the Petitioner.

Facts of the Case

In the present case, the assessee’s business got affected due to Covid-19 pandemic and therefore, the assessee was prevented from filing the returns on time. The department passed an order cancelling the GST registration and it filed appeal before the appellate authority. However, the appeal was rejected on the ground of delay as it was filed after 209 days.

It filed writ petition and contended that couldn’t file return on time due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The department submitted that if any person is aggrieved by the cancellation, the appeal has to be filed within the time frame prescribed under Section 107(4) of CGST Act, 2017 i.e. three/six months, as the case may be, with a further period of one month.

High Court Held

The Honorable high Court noted that CGST Act, 2017 is a special statute and a self-contained code by itself. Section 107 has an inbuilt mechanism and has impliedly excluded the application of the Limitation Act. It is trite, that the Limitation Act will apply only if it is extended to the special statute.

The Court further noted that the provisions of a fiscal statute have to be strictly construed and interpreted. Therefore, there was no illegality in the action of the appellate authority in rejecting the appeal as time-barred and the writ petition was accordingly dismissed.