Appellant Authority cannot reject appeal merely on the ground that order copy was not furnished physically

The Calcutta High Court has ruled that an appeal cannot be rejected simply because a physical copy of the order was not submitted within the deadline. In a case where an appellant filed their appeal electronically, the court found that rejecting it on the grounds of a missing physical copy was not valid. The High Court set aside the rejection and ordered the Appellate Authority to consider the appeal on its merits.

The Hon'ble Calcutta High Court in Rama Shanker Modi v the Assistant Commissioner, Central Goods And Services tax and Central Excise [WPA 15639 of 2023 dated July 20, 2023] set aside the impugned order and held that mere non filing of order physically within the time limit cannot be a valid ground to rejection of appeal.

Facts

Mr. Rama Shanker Modi ("the Petitioner") was aggrieved by the order of the Adjudicating Authorityandfiled an appeal before the Appellate Authority.  The Appellate Authority vide an order dated May 01, 2023 ("the Impugned Order") dismissed the appeal of the Petitioner by stating that since the Petitioner had failed to produce the certified copy of the order which has been challenged and the appeal is time barred. However, the Petitioner has filed the appeal electronically before the Appellate Authority. 

Aggrieved by the Impugned Order, the Petitioner filed writ before the Hon'ble Calcutta High Court challenging the impugned order.

Issue

Whether the Revenue Department can reject the appeal merely on the ground that assessee has not filed physical copy of the order even though the order copy was filed electronically? 

Held

The Hon'ble Calcutta High Court in WPA 15639 of 2023 held as under:

• Observed that, the Petitioner was bonafide and made a mistake of not filing the appeal physically before the Appellate Authority within time.
• Held that, the Appellate Authority cannot rejected the appeal merely on the technical ground of not filing appeal physically before the authority without going into the merits.
• Set aside the impugned order and directed the Appellate Authority to accept the certified copy filed by the Petitioner beyond time and dispose the appeal in question in accordance with law and pass a speaking order after giving an opportunity of hearing to the Petitioner.