Orissa High Court.- Abhijit Nayak vs The Commr. of (CT & GST) and Ors. : Writ Petition No. 32643 of 2025
Background:- The petitioner assailed the order dated 8th February, 2022 passed under Section 74 of the GST Act for the tax periods July, 2017 to March, 2018, which stood affirmed by the Appellate Authority on 25th September, 2025. The principal contention of the petitioner was that though the statute provides a remedy of appeal under Section 112 before the GST Appellate Tribunal, such remedy could not be availed as the Tribunal was not constituted and functional, and consequently the petitioner could not be rendered remediless.
Decision: The Court held that when the appellate forum is not functional, the Writ Court can be approached, but any statutory conditions attached to filing of the appeal must be strictly complied with. Noting that the GSTAT has now been made functional and the period for filing appeals has been extended in a staggered manner, the Court found it inappropriate to keep the writ petition pending. The writ petition was disposed of with directions to the petitioner to deposit the amount mandated under Section 112(8) and file the appeal before the GSTAT within the stipulated timeline, without the Court expressing any opinion on the merits of the case.
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