Shiva Chemicals And Anr. vs. Assistant Commissioner Of Revenue, State Tax Jorasanko And Jorabagan Charge And Ors.

Held

The Court held that the writ petition should be disposed of with a direction to the petitioners to prefer an appeal before the GSTAT Kolkata within four weeks from the date of the order. The Court restrained the respondents from taking any coercive action against the petitioner for this four-week period. It was clarified that any interim protection granted by the High Court would cease to operate and stand vacated ipso facto if an appeal was not filed within the stipulated four weeks. The parties were permitted to rely on the pleadings filed before the High Court. The Court did not expressly decide on the exclusion of the pending period for limitation, but by granting four weeks to file the appeal, it implicitly allowed the petitioners to proceed with filing their appeal.

Facts

The petitioners, Shiva Chemicals and Anr., filed a writ petition before the High Court. They submitted that the Appellate Tribunal has been constituted and is functional. Consequently, they sought the transfer of the writ petition to the Appellate Tribunal and requested four weeks' time to prefer an appeal before the GSTAT Kolkata under Section 112 of the CGST Act, 2017/WBGST Act, 2017. They also requested that the period during which the writ petition was pending be excluded for computing the limitation period for filing the appeal. The respondents are the Assistant Commissioner of Revenue, State Tax, Jorasanko and Jorabagan Charge, and others.

Key Issues

1. Whether the writ petition should be transferred to the Appellate Tribunal, given its functional status, for the petitioners to prefer an appeal under Section 112 of the CGST Act, 2017/WBGST Act, 2017? 2. Whether the period during which the writ petition was pending before the High Court should be excluded for computing the limitation period for filing the appeal before the Appellate Tribunal? Petitioner's Arguments: The petitioners argued that since the Appellate Tribunal is now functional, the writ petition should be transferred to it. They sought four weeks to file an appeal before the GSTAT Kolkata and requested exclusion of the pending period for limitation. They relied on the principle that when a statutory forum becomes functional, matters pending before the High Court should be directed to that forum to enable the filing of appeals within the prescribed time, with appropriate condonation of delay or exclusion of the period. Revenue/State's Arguments: The judgment does not record any specific arguments made by the State-respondents.