Airports Authority Of INDIA vs. Assistant Commissioner Of Revenue, Large Taxpayer Unit And Ors
Held
The Court held that while the petitioner, Airports Authority of India, had significantly delayed in filing their writ petition after the expiry of the appeal period, considering the involvement of public exchequer, it was not inclined to impose costs. The Court granted the petitioner 15 days from the date of the order to file an appeal before the appellate authority against the impugned adjudication order. If the appeal is filed within this stipulated time, it will be heard on its merits. The Court further directed the General Manager (Finance), Airports Authority of India, Kolkata, to conduct an inquiry to ascertain the cause of the delay and take appropriate action against the responsible individual(s) within the department for not taking the litigation seriously. The issue of whether the petitioner's initial attempt to file the appeal was validly made was implicitly addressed by allowing the appeal to be filed within the new timeframe.
Facts
The petitioner, Airports Authority of India, filed a writ petition challenging an order dated January 9, 2023, passed by the WBGST authority. The statutory period for filing an appeal against this order expired on April 9, 2023, with an additional 30-day extension expiring on May 9, 2023. The petitioner claimed to have attempted to file an appeal after the extended limitation period but was unsuccessful. The writ petition was filed approximately four months after the expiry of the appeal period. The Court noted the petitioner's delay in approaching the High Court despite the expiry of the appeal window.
Key Issues
1. Whether the petitioner, Airports Authority of India, should be granted an extension of time to file an appeal against the order dated January 9, 2023, passed by the WBGST authority, despite the expiry of the statutory and extended limitation periods. The petitioner argued that they made an attempt to file the appeal after the extended period of limitation but could not succeed. They did not explicitly argue for a specific legal provision allowing condonation of delay in this writ petition, but their attempt to file the appeal post-expiry implies a request for leniency. The revenue or State did not record any specific arguments against the petitioner's plea for extension in the provided text. However, the Court's observations imply a concern regarding the delay and the functioning of the petitioner's legal department.
Sections Cited
None explicitly mentioned in the provided text.
AI-generated summary — verify with the full judgment below
2023 Large Taxpayer Unit & Ors. Mr. Indranil Banerjee, Mr. Subrata Mukherjee. … For the Petitioner. Mr. Om Narayan Rai. ……For the UOI. Mr. K. K. Maiti, ……For the CGST authority. Mr. A. Ray, Mr. T. M. Siddiqui, Mr. S. Sanyal. ………For the State. Heard learned advocates appearing for the parties. By this writ petition, petitioner has challenged the impugned order dated 9th January, 2023 passed by the WBGST authority concerned being Annexure P- 14 to the writ petition which is appellable order and the time to file appeal against the impugned order has expired on 9th April, 2023 and forther 30 days which is allowable under the statute has also expired on 9th May, 2023. In this writ petition, petitioner is Airports Authority of India. Though the petitioner submits that after expiry of extended period of limitation of 22 days, it made attempt to file the appeal but could not 2 succeed. Even if this contention of the petitioner is accepted that time to file the appeal was expired in the month of May by taking into consideration the extended p
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