Telangana High Court
M/S. Sunder Synthetics Pvt Ltd vs The Union Of India on 6 June, 2024
THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE SUJOY PAUL
AND
THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE NAMAVARAPU RAJESHWAR RAO
WRIT PETITION No.13172 of 2024
ORDER:
(per Hon'ble Sri Justice Sujoy Paul) Sri M.Umashankar, learned counsel, appears for the petitioner and Ms.B.Sapna Reddy, learned Senior Standing Counsel for CBIC.
2. With the consent, finally heard.
3. The singular point involved in this case is whether respondent No.3 was justified in passing the impugned order dated 28.03.2024 whereby appeal of petitioner was dismissed without entering into the merits of the case.
4. Learned counsel for the petitioner by taking this Court to the provisional acknowledgment for submission of form of appeal, dated 24.07.2021 (Page No.53) and Paragraph Nos.8 and 9 of impugned order submits that there is no iota of doubt that the petitioner filed his appeal on 24.07.2021. Page No.1 of 'running index' shows that the appeal stood 'admitted' on 24.07.2021 itself. An admitted appeal should have been decided on merits and should not have been thrown overboard on a hyper technical ground that petitioner has filed the certified copy of the impugned order manually on 22.09.2023. This aspect is squarely covered by the judgments of 2 Allahabad High Court in M/s.Enkay Polymers Versus State of U.P. and 2 others 1, Visible Alpha Solutions India Private Limited Versus Commissioner, CGST Appeals, Noida and another 2 and M/s. Jai Prakash Shiv Charan Bidi through its Proprietor Shri Jai Prakash Sahu Versus Commissioner, Commercial Taxex and another 3, Rajasthan High Court in Prakash Purohit S/o. Shir Ranu Singh Versus the Commissioner, Central Goods and Service Tax, Jaipur, the Additional Commissioner (Appeals), Central Goods and Service Tax, Jodhpur, the Assistant Commissioner, Circle-A-Pali-Ward-I, Central goods and Service Tax Office, Pali 4 and Madras High Court in Doosan Infracore India Private Limited, versus the Assistant Commissioner, Office of the Commissioner of ST and Central Excise, Chennai 5. Thus, the impugned order may be set aside and respondent No.3 may be directed to decide the appeal on merits.
5. In addition, learned counsel for the petitioner submits that in fact there is no necessity in the present era to file hard copy and certified copy of the impugned order. The impugned order was already uploaded on 22.07.2021 and therefore, respondent No.3 had 1 2024(5) TMI 917 - Allahabad High Court 2 2024 (2) TMI - Allahabad High Court 3 2024 (4) TMI 418 - Allahabad High Court 4 2022 (11) TMI 742 - Rajasthan High Court 5 2020 (8) TMI 138 - Madras High Court 3 the order before him. The petitioner's appeal is dismissed on a hyper technical reason which cannot sustain judicial scrutiny.
6. Ms.B.Sapna Reddy, Ms.B.Sapna Reddy, learned Senior Standing Counsel for CBIC, opposed the prayer and supported the impugned order.
7. A perusal of the documents filed by the petitioner shows that the appeal was filed on 24.07.2021 and it was admitted on the same date. The "admission" means it is admitted for final hearing. We find substance in the argument of learned counsel for the petitioner that when the impugned order itself was uploaded on 22.07.2021, the petitioner's appeal should not have been dismissed on the ground that physical certified copy is not filed on the said date and it was indeed filed at a later point of time in the month of September, 2023. Allahabad High Court in M/s.Enkay Polymers's case (supra) has already taken this view.
8. In this view of the matter, we are unable to give our stamp of approval to the order dated 28.03.2024 and deem it proper to set aside the same and direct respondent No.3 to decide the appeal on merits. The parties undertake to appear before him on 01.07.2024. Separate notices shall not be required to the parties for the next 4 date of hearing. Respondent No.3 shall consider and decide the appeal, in accordance with law, on merits.
9. Accordingly, the Writ Petition is disposed of. No costs. Interlocutory applications, if any pending, shall also stand closed.
________________ SUJOY PAUL, J _____________________________________ NAMAVARAPU RAJESHWAR RAO, J 6th June, 2024 ns/prn