Stay Granted on Appellate Order Due to Non-Constitution of Tribunal.
Issue: Whether an assessee can obtain interim relief when aggrieved by a first appellate authority’s order, but unable to file an appeal before the GST Appellate Tribunal due to its non-constitution.
Facts:
- The assessee was aggrieved by an order passed by the first appellate authority.
- The assessee intended to file an appeal before the GST Appellate Tribunal.
- The tribunal had not yet been constituted.
- The assessee filed a writ petition seeking interim relief.
Decision:
- Following the precedent set in Maa Tarini Traders v. State of Odisha (Orissa), the court granted a stay on the impugned order.
- The stay was conditional upon the assessee depositing 10 percent of the disputed tax amount, over and above the 10 percent already deposited for filing the initial appeal.
- The ruling was in favor of the assessee.
Key Takeaways:
- The non-constitution of the GST Appellate Tribunal does not deprive assessees of interim relief.
- Courts can grant interim relief, such as a stay on appellate orders, in such situations.
- The court may impose conditions, such as additional deposit requirements, for granting interim relief.
- Case law precedents, like Maa Tarini Traders v. State of Odisha (Orissa), guide the court’s decisions in similar circumstances.
- Section 112 of Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017/ Odisha Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 applied to this case.
HIGH COURT OF ORISSA
Chinmay Khuntia
v.
Additional Commissioner of State Tax (Appeal)
Arindam Sinha, Actg. CJ. and M.S. Sahoo, J.
W.P.(C) No. 3104 of 2025
FEBRUARY 3, 2025
Ms. I. Tripathy, Adv. for the Petitioner. D. Das, Adv. Additional Standing Counsel for the Respondent.
ORDER
1. Ms. Tripathy, learned advocate appears on behalf of petitioner and submits, her client is aggrieved by order dated 3rd April, 2024 made by the First Appellate Authority. He wants to appeal therefrom to the Tribunal but it has not yet been constituted. In the circumstances assessees and the department Page 1 of 3 were complying with directions made on order dated 16th February, 2024 by the First Division Bench in a batch of writ petitions, lead case being WP(C) no.42015 of 2023 (M/s. Maa Tarini Traders v. State of Odisha and others).
2. The directions included requiring the assessee to deposit 10% of the disputed amount of tax on filing the appeal and further 20% of remaining disputed tax, for the impugned order to be stayed.
3. She submits, her client is up against State revenue. There was notification dated 16th August, 2024 made by Central revenue reducing latter deposit to 10%. Now, State revenue has correspondingly notified on 29th October, 2024. In the circumstances, the writ petition be disposed of as covered by order dated 16th February, 2024 (supra) with modification for deposit of 10% of remaining disputed tax for impugned order to remain stayed.
4. Mr. Das, learned advocate, Additional Standing Counsel appears on behalf of State revenue.
5. We accept submission made on behalf of petitioner regarding corresponding notification reducing requirement of the deposit to 10% of disputed tax for impugned first appellate order to remain stayed. The deposit be made accordingly.
6. The writ petition is accordingly disposed of.