Naveen Oil Carrier PVT. LTD vs. Assistant Commissioner Of Revenue, Bureau Of Investigation (North Bengal)Alipurduar Zone And Ors.

Held

The Court held that while the appellate authority could not be faulted for rejecting the appeals based on the Rule 108 prevalent at the time of filing, as the amendment came into effect later, the appellate authority ought to have considered the subsequent development. The Court found that the petitioner was indeed unable to file the appeals electronically because the orders were not uploaded on their portal. The Court observed that the appellate authority's order appeared mechanical. The Court acknowledged the petitioner's right to maintain the appeals. Therefore, the Court set aside the appellate authority's order, restored the appeals, and remanded the matter back to the appellate authority to hear and dispose of the appeals on merits within eight weeks, subject to the petitioner complying with other formalities. The Court found that the petitioner was prevented from filing appeals electronically and that the amendment to Rule 108 should be considered.

Facts

The petitioner, Naveen Oil Carrier Pvt. Ltd., filed five appeals before the appellate authority under Section 107 of the WBGST/CGST Act, 2017, challenging orders dated 23rd/24th February, 2023, issued under Section 129(3) of the Act. The petitioner manually filed these appeals because the orders and demands in Form GST DRC 07 were not uploaded on their portal. The appellate authority, by an order dated 9th October, 2023, rejected these appeals, relying on Rule 108 of the WBGST/CGST Rules, 2017, as it stood at the time of filing, holding them to be barred by limitation. The petitioner contends that the appeals should not have been rejected on other grounds once the manual filing was accepted as necessary due to non-upload.

Key Issues

1. Whether the appeals filed manually by the petitioner, due to the non-availability of orders on their portal, were liable to be rejected on grounds of limitation, despite the subsequent amendment to Rule 108 of the WBGST/CGST Rules, 2017, which permits manual filing in such circumstances? Petitioner's arguments: The petitioner argued that once the appellate authority found the appeals were not in order due to manual filing, they should not have been rejected on other grounds. They relied on the amended Rule 108, effective from 4th August 2023, which allows manual appeals if electronic filing is not possible due to non-availability of documents. The petitioner contended they fall under this scenario and should benefit from the amendment, especially given the Appellate Tribunal is yet to be constituted. Revenue's arguments: The respondents, represented by the learned Additional Government Pleader, did not record specific arguments against the petitioner's plea regarding the amendment and manual filing.