Delhi High Court Allows GST Appeal Without Full Pre-Deposit Over Overlapping Demands

The Delhi High Court has permitted a taxpayer to approach the appellate authority with an application seeking exemption from the statutory pre-deposit requirement, to the extent the GST demand is alleged to overlap with an earlier demand.

The division bench of Justices Anil Khetarpal and Bharat Parashar was hearing a plea by M/s Forever Exim India Private Limited seeking restoration of its writ petition challenging a GST order dated August 30, 2024.

Petitioner submitted that parallel proceedings had been initiated by the authorities and that the show cause notice dated April 5, 2023 overlapped with another show cause notice dated August 14, 2024. It was further submitted that Petitioner had already filed an appeal against an earlier order and would be required to make a pre-deposit for filing an appeal against the August 30, 2024 order.

Respondents submitted that the petitioner could move an application before the appellate authority seeking exemption from the pre-deposit requirement to the extent the demand was overlapping, stating that they would have no objection to the appellate authority considering such a plea.

The High Court observed that the issue of overlap or duplicity of the proceedings could be examined by the appellate authority.

In these circumstances, the Court declined to restore the writ petition. However, it granted liberty to Petitioner to file an appeal against the August 30, 2024 order along with an application seeking exemption from the pre-deposit requirement.

For Petitioner: Advocates R. P. Singh, Nirmal Dixit, Priya Bhowmik

For Respondents: Advocates Anurag Ojha, SSC along with Dipak Raj, Aditya Chaudhary,