Appellant Authority cannot reject appeal merely on the ground that order copy was not furnished physically

[CA Bimal Jain]

The Hon’ble Calcutta High Court in Rama Shanker Modi v the Assistant Commissioner, Central Goods And Services tax and Central Excise [2023 (8) TMI 646 - CALCUTTA HIGH COURT] set aside the impugned order and held that mere non filing of order physically within the time limit cannot be a valid ground to rejection of appeal.

Facts:

Mr. Rama Shanker Modi (“the Petitioner”) was aggrieved by the order of the Adjudicating Authority and filed an appeal before the Appellate Authority.  The Appellate Authority vide an order dated May 01, 2023 (“the Impugned Order”) dismissed the appeal of the Petitioner by stating that since the Petitioner had failed to produce the certified copy of the order which has been challenged and the appeal is time barred. However, the Petitioner has filed the appeal electronically before the Appellate Authority.

Aggrieved by the Impugned Order, the Petitioner filed writ before the Hon’ble Calcutta High Court challenging the impugned order.

Issue:

Whether the Revenue Department can reject the appeal merely on the ground that assessee has not filed physical copy of the order even though the order copy was filed electronically?

Held:

The Hon’ble Calcutta High Court in 2023 (8) TMI 646 - CALCUTTA HIGH COURT held as under:

• Observed that, the Petitioner was bonafide and made a mistake of not filing the appeal physically before the Appellate Authority within time.
• Held that, the Appellate Authority cannot rejected the appeal merely on the technical ground of not filing appeal physically before the authority without going into the merits.
• Set aside the impugned order and directed the Appellate Authority to accept the certified copy filed by the Petitioner beyond time and dispose the appeal in question in accordance with law and pass a speaking order after giving an opportunity of hearing to the Petitioner.

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