The court held that when a party is prevented from filing a statutory appeal due to the non-service of an order-in-appeal, they must be granted liberty to obtain the order and prefer an appeal, subject to delay condonation and statutory pre-deposits.

ORDER:

Heard Mr. Ravi Raghavan, learned counsel representing Mr. Lakshmi Kumaran Sridharan, learned counsel for the petitioner, in virtual mode and Ms. Bokaro Sapna Reddy, learned Senior Standing Counsel for Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), appearing for respondent Nos.1 to 3.

2. The grievance of the petitioner is captured in the order dated 23.07.2026, which reads as under:

“The refund was sanctioned to a tune of Rs.19,47,35,590/- by Form GST RFD-06 on 14.06.2023 pertaining to period April, 2021 to March, 2022 against which the department preferred an appeal. However, without serving any copy of the appeal papers, the appeal was decided ex parte on 30.04.2024, copy of which has not yet been served upon the petitioner. Petitioner still has a remedy to prefer an appeal under Section 112 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 before the learned Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT) and has been asking a copy of the order-in-appeal. Meanwhile, by proceedings in show cause notice dated 25.02.2026, the respondents have sought to recover the amount originally sanctioned by order-in-original dated 29.05.2026 along with Form GST DRC-07.”

3. The cut-off date for filing an appeal before the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (for short, ‘GSTAT’) against an order- in-appeal, preferred during such period, was 31.07.2026, as per the Notification dated 30.06.2026 issued by the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of India.

4. Petitioner’s refrain is that the order-in-appeal dated 30.04.2024 was neither served upon it nor uploaded on the common portal. Therefore, the petitioner has been precluded from preferring an appeal within the time prescribed.

5. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that when the instant Writ Petition was preferred, time limit for filing the appeal has not expired. Therefore, liberty be granted to the petitioner to prefer an appeal within a period of three weeks with an observation that the delay, if any, may be condoned by the GSTAT taking into account the pendency of the instant Writ Petition. He submits that a copy of the order-in-appeal may be made available to the petitioner for preferring the appeal.

6. Learned Senior Standing Counsel for CBIC submits that though it is a matter of verification whether the order-in-appeal was uploaded in the common portal or not, if the petitioner approaches the authority concerned, the same would be made available within a week, so as to enable the petitioner to file an appeal under Section 112 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (for short, ‘the Act’).

7. Having regard to the limited facts and the grievance placed by the petitioner, let the petitioner make a formal application manually by tomorrow to the appellate authority to provide a copy of the order-in- appeal dated 30.04.2024. On such application being made, let a copy of the order-in-appeal be provided to the petitioner within a period of one week. Petitioner is allowed liberty to prefer an appeal before the GSTAT within a period of three weeks from today with statutory pre- deposit and a delay condonation application. In case, the appeal is filed within the said period with statutory pre-deposit, as per the provisions of Section 112(8) of the Act, the impugned demand would be in abeyance.

8. The instant Writ Petition is accordingly disposed of. There shall be no order as to costs.

Miscellaneous applications, if any pending, shall stand closed.