Procedural delays in GST appeal filings should not invalidate compliance efforts and rights to appeal, especially where the appellant has made good faith attempts to meet statutory requirements.

ORDER :

Vinay Saraf, J.

1. Being aggrieved by the Order in Appeal dated 23.03.2024 passed by Joint Commissioner (Appeals) Central G.S.T. & Central Excise Bhopal, the petitioner has preferred the present petition.

2. With the consent of the parties, matter is heard finally.

3. Heard Shri Himanshu Khemuka, Advocate appeared on behalf of the petitioner and Shri Abhijeet Shrivastava, Advocate appeared on behalf of the respondent - revenue.

4. Short facts of the case are that, petitioner is the proprietor of M/s Swastik Traders and engaged in the business of General Stores and registered with GST Department under the provisions of Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 {hereinafter to be referred as ‘CGST Act, 2017'}. The petitioner filed statutory GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B for the period of April - 2018 to March - 2019. However, the respondent department conducted GST Audit of the records of the petitioner and a show cause notice dated 31.03.2021 was issued to the petitioner by the respondent and GST demand was proposed under Section 74 of the CGST Act, 2017 for the difference between the Input Tax Credit claimed by the petitioner in GSTR-3B return and assessed by department. As per the department, petitioner did not appear and submit any reply or documents in response to show cause notice. After consideration, the Assessment Officer Superintendent CGST, Jabalpur passed the Order in Original on 22.09.2022 and held that the petitioner had availed Input Tax Credit of Rs.8,02,813/- wrongly for the period 2018-2019 and consequently confirmed tax demand of Rs.8,02,813/- and imposed penalty of Rs.8,02,813/- upon the petitioner.

5. Order dated 22.09.2022 was served upon the petitioner on 30.09.2022. The petitioner deposited Rs.82,000/- in his GST Electronic Cash Ledger on 22.12.2022 and thereafter submitted offline appeal under Section 107 of CGST Act, 2017 through Speed Post which was delivered on 20.01.2023. According to (1), the limitation prescribed for filing the appeal is three months from the date on which the said decision or order is communicated to such person. Sub Section 6(b) provides that, appeal shall not lie unless the appellant has paid a sum equivalent to 10% of the remaining amount of tax in dispute arising from the said order. Thereafter, on 13.04.2024, petitioner filed online appeal along with the copy of challan of pre-deposit amount of Rs.82,000/- on 22.12.2022. Thereafter, the petitioner transferred Rs.80,283/- through GST APL - 01 on 13.04.2023 towards pre-deposit of 10% of the disputed tax amount.

6. The appellate authority by order dated 23.04.2024 dismissed the appeal filed under Section 107 by offline mode as well as online by the petitioner on the ground that petitioner has not made the mandatory pre-deposit along with the offline appeal dated 20.01.2023 and online appeal filed by the petitioner on 13.04.2023 was beyond the time limit prescribed by law. The appellate authority further held that appeal ought to have been filed within a period of three months from the date of communication of order in original on 30.02.2022 and the delay up to the period of one month can be condoned by the appellate authority upon being satisfied that the appellant was prevented by sufficient cause from presenting the appeal within the prescribed period of three months as per (4) of CGST Act, 2017. It is further held that as the online appeal filed on 13.04.2023 was filed beyond the period of one month, after expiry of limitation, therefore, the same could not be considered and the mandatory pre-deposit was not made by the appellant with the appeal filed offline, the same is also not considerable.

7. Being aggrieved by the Order in Appeal passed by the appellate authority i.e. Joint Commissi