M/S Groupe Seb INDIA Private LTD vs. Union Of INDIA And Ors
Held
The High Court held that the review applications were not maintainable. The Court found that the entire effort of the GST Authorities in filing these applications was to reagitate and re-argue the matter that had already been decided. This is not permitted under the laid down parameters for seeking a review of a judgment. The Court also noted that a previous application filed by the GST Authorities with a similar prayer had already been dismissed. Therefore, all the review applications were dismissed. The operative direction was the dismissal of all review applications.
Facts
The GST Authorities, through the Commissioner of Goods and Service Tax of various Commissionerates in Haryana, Punjab, and Chandigarh, filed a batch of 51 review applications seeking to revisit a judgment previously passed by the High Court on November 4, 2019. The petitioners in these applications were the original writ petitioners. In response to the review applications, one of the petitioners stated that the GST Authorities had not filed any appeal to the Supreme Court and instead had filed these review applications, which they contended amounted to contempt of court. The High Court noted that a previous application by the GST Authorities had also been dismissed on November 29, 2019.
Key Issues
1. Whether the present review applications are maintainable for reagitating/re-arguing the matter already decided by this Court? The GST Authorities argued that the review applications were filed to seek a review of the judgment dated November 4, 2019. They contended that the applications were necessary to address the issues decided in the original writ petitions. The petitioners, on the other hand, argued that the review applications were an attempt to reagitate and re-argue the matter, which is impermissible under the established parameters for seeking review of a judgment. They also pointed out that the GST Authorities had not filed any appeal to the Supreme Court and that the filing of review applications instead of implementing the court's directions constituted contempt of court. The petitioners relied on the principle that review is not an appeal in disguise.
AI-generated summary — verify with the full judgment below
Review Application No.506 of 2019(O&M) in & #1# CWP No.28203 of 2019 & Connected Matters IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH.
Review Application No.506 of 2019(O&M) in CWP No.28203 of 2019 Date of Decision:-10.01.2020 M/s Groupe SEB India Pvt. Ltd. ......Petitioner.
Verus Union of India & Ors. ......Respondents. CORAM:- HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE JASWANT SINGH HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE LALIT BATRA Present:- Mr. Sunish Bindlish, Advocate & Mr. Sourabh Goel, Advocate for review applicants/ GST Authorities.
Mr. Sanjay Bansal, Senior Advocate assisted by Mr. Amit Parsad, Advocate for the non applicant/Petitioner in RA-CW-557-2019 in CWP No.17676 of 2019.
Mr. Surjeet Bhadu, Advocate & Mr. Veer Singh, Advocate for non applicant(s)/ Petitioner(s) in RA-CW-515-2019 in CWP No.5983 of 2019, RA-CW-501-2019 in CWP No.5977 & RA-CW-513-2019 in CWP No.4248 of 2019.
Mr. Rakesh Sobti, Advocate for non applicant(s)/ Petitioner(s) in RA-CW-514 of 2019 in CWP No.24809 of 2019 & RA-CW-500-2019 in CWP No.25303 of 2019.
Mr. Arjun Sheoran, Advocate for non applicant(s)/ Petitioner(s) in RA-CW-506 of 2019 in CWP No.28203 of 2019 .
Mr. Balwinder Singh, Advocate for Mr. Rajiv Agnihotri, Advocate
The judgment continues below.
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