High Court
IGST Refund Claims Cannot Be Rejected Under Omitted Law: Bombay High Court
The Bombay High Court has held that refund claims cannot be thrown out on the basis of a statutory rule that no longer exists and must be looked at afresh once such a rule is omitted (deleted) without any saving clause. The court set aside orders rejecting Integrated Goods and Services Tax refunds claimed by Kelvion India Private Limited and sent the matter back to the tax department for a fresh decision. A Division Bench of Justice M S Sonak and Justice Advait M Sethna noted that the...
GST Notices And Orders Issued Only In Summary Forms Without Details Are Unsustainable: Calcutta High Court
The Calcutta High Court has quashed a GST adjudication order passed solely through summary online forms, holding that tax liability cannot be imposed without clearly setting out the allegations and reasons as required under law. A single-judge bench of Justice Om Narayan Rai said the manner in which the proceedings were conducted could not be sustained. “The order that has been passed and communicated to the petitioner has remained in summary form. It is bereft of any detail and sans any...
No GST On Assignment Of Long-Term Leasehold Rights: Bombay High Court Quashes Notice Against MIDC Unit
The Bombay High Court at Nagpur on Friday has set aside a GST show cause notice seeking to tax the assignment of long-term leasehold rights. The court held that such a transaction is a transfer of benefits arising out of immovable property and is not a taxable “supply” under the GST law. A division bench of Justice Anil L. Pansare and Justice Nivedita P. Mehta said the tax department had wrongly treated the transaction as a service. Agreeing with the Gujarat High Court in Gujarat Chamber of...
Karnataka HC Quashes GST Refund Rejection, Says Limitation Runs From Original Application, Not Revised Filing
The Karnataka High Court has quashed the rejection of a GST refund claim as time-barred, holding that the limitation period must be computed from the date on which the taxpayer originally applied for the refund and not from a revised application filed after a deficiency memo. The bench of Justice S R Krishna Kumar observed that, in the instant case, the refund application filed on July 4, 2024 was well within the prescribed limitation period and that a subsequent application filed pursuant to a...
Punjab and Haryana High Court Grants Bail To Company Director In Fraudulent ITC Availment Case
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has granted bail to a GST accused after noting the challenge that the grounds of arrest were not furnished in writing. The Court reiterated that failure to give written grounds violates statutory safeguards and weakens an accused's right to seek bail. Justice Surya Partap Singh granted bail to Baldeep Singh Sapra, Director of PMI Smelting Private Limited. He was arrested by the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) in a case alleging fraudulent...
Wrong PIN Code In E-Way Bill Alone Cannot Trigger Seizure Or Penalty Under GST Act: Allahabad High Court Reaffirms
The Allahabad High Court has once again made it clear that GST authorities cannot detain goods or impose penalties merely because of a wrong PIN Code in an e-way bill, if the addresses of the consignor and consignee are otherwise correct. A single-judge bench of Justice Piyush Agrawal held that proceedings under Section 129 of the GST Act are are not justified for clerical mistakes. Relying on a binding circular issued by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs and his own earlier...
GST Authorities Cannot Pass Orders Against Deceased Taxpayer, Recover From Heirs: Allahabad High Court
The Allahabad High Court has held that while GST law allows proceedings to be pursued against a legal heir after the death of a taxpayer, authorities cannot determine tax liability in the name of a deceased person and then recover it from the heir. The court ruled that Section 93 of the Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, permits recovery from legal representatives only after a valid determination against them, and not through orders passed against a dead assessee. A bench of Justice Shekhar B...
GST Late-Fee Amnesty Benefit Cannot Be Denied To Early Annual Return Filers: Madras High Court
The Madras High Court has held that GST-registered persons who filed their annual returns before the amnesty scheme cannot be denied its benefit merely because the GST Council did not address their situation in its meeting. The amnesty scheme, notified in March 2023, capped the maximum late fee for delayed filing of GSTR-9 (annual GST returns) at Rs 10,000 per financial year for the financial years 2017-18 to 2021-22. A single-judge bench of Justice C Saravanan observed that such taxpayers...
Madras High Court Directs Consolidated GST Adjudication After Trader Receives Two Assessments For Same Year
After a Chennai-based trader received two separate GST assessment orders for the same financial year, the Madras High Court remanded the matter for consolidated adjudication by a single authority. A single-judge bench of Justice C Saravanan noted that, for the same tax period, “two officers who are the Respondents in the respective Writ Petitions filed respective impugned orders,” and proceeded to consider the grievance raised by the trader. The dispute relates to two assessment orders issued...
Telangana High Court Strikes Down GST Rule Mandating Monthly ITC Distribution By Input Service Distributor
The Telangana High Court has struck down a GST rule that required an Input Service Distributor, typically the head office of a company with multiple branches, to pass on the input tax credit of a month to its branch units in the same month. A division bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice G. M. Mohiuddin ruled that Rule 39(1)(a) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017, was ultra vires Section 20 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. The bench said, “Rule...
Uttarakhand High Court Says Taxpayer Seeking GST Installment Over Poor Finances Can Approach Commissioner
The Uttarakhand High Court has declined to entertain a writ petition filed by a GST-registered taxpayer seeking permission to pay tax dues in installments, citing the availability of a statutory remedy under the GST law. A division bench of Justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari and Justice Subhash Upadhyay was hearing a challenge to an order dated January 22, 2025, passed by the Assistant Commissioner, State Tax, Gopeshwar, Chamoli, by which a GST liability of over Rs 7.5 lakhs was fastened on the...