The Allahabad High Court has held that the refund application under the Goods and Service Tax (GST) cannot be rejected merely on the ground of delay in ignorance of SC order on extension of limitation period.
Granting relief to the petitioner-firm, the Division Bench comprising of Justice Surya Prakash Kesarwani and Justice Jayant Banerji noted that the SC order in view of the prevailing pandemic has to be complied with.
"On the fact of the present case, we find that the refund application of the petitioner could not have been rejected by the respondent no.4 merely on the ground of delay, ignoring the aforequoted order of Hon'ble Supreme Court."
As per impugned order, the period of limitation for filing refund application in terms of Section 54(1) of the CGST/UPGST Act, had expired in September, 2020 and even period extended by the department has also expired on 30.11.2020. Thereafter, petitioner filed refund application on 31.03.2021, which has been rejected by the impugned order on the ground of delay.
Learned Counsel for the petitioner has duely submitted that the application has been arbitrarily rejected as period between 15.03.2020 to 28.02.2022 has been directed by the Supreme Court to be excluded for the purposes of limitation as may be prescribed under any general or special laws in respect of all judicial or quasi-judicial proceedings, vide impugned order dated 10.01.2022 in Misc. Application No. 21 of 2022, Suo-Moto Writ Petition (C) No.3 of 2020.
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