Principal Commissioner vs. Priya Dyers

Held

The Court granted the permission as prayed for by the learned senior standing counsel for the appellant. The appeal was disposed of as withdrawn. However, the Court provided a liberty to the appellant to seek revival of the appeal in case there was any error in the computation of the tax effect involved or if for any reason, the instruction dated 22.08.2019 was not applicable. No specific finding was made on the merits of the original dispute, as the appeal was withdrawn. The issue of the monetary threshold was addressed by allowing withdrawal based on the revenue's internal policy.

Facts

The appellant, the Principal Commissioner of Central GST & Central Excise, filed a Tax Appeal before the High Court of Gujarat. The appeal was against an order concerning Priya Dyers. The revenue's counsel, Mr. Dhaval D. Vyas, placed on record a communication dated 23.10.2019 from the Joint Commissioner (Legal), Central GST & Central Excise, Rajkot. This communication stated that the appeal fell below the monetary threshold of Rs. 1,00,00,000/- and requested the withdrawal of the appeal. Consequently, the learned counsel sought permission to withdraw the appeal.

Key Issues

1. Whether the appeal, having a tax effect below the prescribed monetary threshold, should be permitted to be withdrawn as per the instructions of the revenue authority? The petitioner (appellant) argued that it had received instructions from the Joint Commissioner (Legal) to withdraw the appeal as it fell below the monetary threshold of Rs. 1,00,00,000/-. The petitioner's counsel sought permission to withdraw the appeal based on these instructions. The revenue or State's argument is not recorded as the appeal was filed by the revenue.