APPEAL AGAINST ADJUDICATION ORDER - Handbook of GST Law & Procedures (CBIC) [October 2024] - GST

2. APPEAL AGAINST ADJUDICATION ORDER 2.1. GST law imposes certain obligation on the taxpayer. The obligations are broadly of two types, viz., tax-related and procedure-related. The taxpayer s compliance with these obligations is verified by the tax officer by various methods like scrutiny, audit, anti-evasion, etc. In this process sometimes situations of actual or perceived non-compliance arise. If the difference in views persists, it results into a dispute, which is then required to be resolved. The CGST Act, 2017 itself provides that the proper officer shall pass suitable adjudication order. 2.2. However, it is likely that the taxpayer may not agree with the adjudication order so passed by the tax officer. It is equally possible that the Department may itself not be in agreement with the adjudication order in some cases. It is for this reason that the statute provides further higher forums of appeal, to both sides. 2.3. The right to appeal is a statutory right. The time limits prescribed by the statute for filing of appeals and the requirement of pre-deposit of a certain sum, before the appeal can be heard by the competent authority, are examples of check mechanism /deterrent to prevent mis-use on the statutory right. 2.4. The Section 6(1) of the CGST Act, 2017 makes provisions for cross empowerment between CGST and SGST/ UTGST officers so as to ensure that if a proper officer of one Act (say CGST Act, 2017) passes an order with respect to a transaction, he will also act as the proper officer of SGST for the same transaction and issue the order with respect to the CGST as well as the SGST/UTGST component of the same transaction. However, Section 6(2) of the Act also provides that where a proper officer under one Act (say CGST Act, 2017) has passed an order, any appeal/review/revision/rectification against the said order will lie only with the proper officers of that Act only (CGST Act, 2017). So also, if any order is passed by the proper officer of SGST/UTGST, as the case may be, any appeal/review/revision/rectification will lie with the proper officer of SGST/UTGST, as the case may be only.