Limitation Period to File Appeal u/s 107 Will Start from Date of Service of Manual Order | Gujarat HC

Case Details: Britannia Industries Ltd. v. Union of India - [2023] 153 taxmann.com 255 (Gujarat)

Judiciary and Counsel Details

• • Biren Vaishnav & Devan M. Desai, JJ.
  • Anandodaya S Mishra for the Petitioner.
  • Rohit G Lalwani, Priyank Lodha & Hetvi H Sancheti for the Respondent.

Facts of the Case

In the present case, the petitioner’s application for refund of accumulated ITC was rejected and order-in-original was served manually. It filed fresh application of refund which was rejected on the ground that appeal was not filed against earlier order and therefore it attained finality.

The petitioner filed writ petition against the rejection of application and submitted that it could not file appeal electronically which is only mode of filing appeal against order due to non-receipt of an electronic copy of the order.

The question placed before the High Court was to decide whether the petitioner’s contention that it was handicapped in filing the appeal, which can only be filed through electronic mode, in absence of uploading of the order-in-original, was an acceptable stand or not.

High Court Held

The Honorable High Court noted that as per Section 169, any decision or order shall be served by giving or tendering it directly or by a messenger including a courier to addressee of taxable person. In the present case, the petitioner also admitted that the order was served manually and the Rule 108 prescribes that appeal has to be filed electronically, but it is nowhere prescribed that the same is to be filed only after impugned order is uploaded on GSTN Portal.

Further, the Court noted that merely because orders were subsequently uploaded will not render or save their appeals from same having been time barred. Therefore, it was held that the limitation period to file appeal under Section 107 will start from date of service of manual order, even if order was not uploaded online and petitioner’s contention that it was handicapped in filing appeal, which can only be filed through electronic mode, in absence of uploading of such order on portal, was not acceptable. The Court also held that the petition was liable to be dismissed with no order as to costs.