Leniency is required in condonation of delay cases.

1. Section 107 of the CGST Act allows a time limit of three months to file an appeal against the adjudication order. A delay up to one month may be condoned by the first appellate authority, provided there are convincing reasons. Normally, whenever the delay in preferring the appeal is beyond the time limit of one month (as per sub section 4 of section 107), the delay is not condoned and accordingly appeal is rejected on limitation ground itself, despite the merits of the case.

2. A case with a delay of four months was before the high court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh in the matter of M/s. G K Housing & Developers Private Limited on 09/07/2025 in CWP 5258 of 2025.

3. The high court has referred to the Supreme Court decision in the matter of Office of the Chief Post Master General Versus Living Media India Ltd. - 2012 (4) TMI 341 - Supreme Court, wherein the Supreme Court observed that “Though we are conscious of the fact that in a matter of condonation of delay, when there was no gross negligence or deliberate inaction or lack of bona fides, a liberal concession has to be adopted to advance substantial justice.”

4. The Appellate Authority in the case of Arvind Gupta Versus Assistant Commissioner of Revenue State Taxes, Cooch Behar Charge & Ors. - 2024 (1) TMI 1096 - CALCUTTA HIGH COURT, had rejected the appeal on the ground of there being no provision under the GST Act for condoning the delay beyond four months, which was set aside by the High Court and it was directed to decide the same on merits.

5. Vide para 7 of the order, the high court has observed that a pragmatic approach instead of pedantic must be adopted.

6. There is nothing that the petitioner is gaining by delaying the appeal. Accordingly, keeping in view the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case, the order rejecting appeal on limitation ground alone without considering the merits of the case was set aside.

7. The matter is remitted to the Appellate Authority, for deciding afresh, in accordance with law, within a period of four months granting the petitioner an opportunity of hearing.

8. The high court also made reference to another supreme court ruling in Mahadeo Vithoba Nikam Vs Gajanan Pandurang Kulkarni (1998) 9 SCC 716, wherein the appeal was allowed setting aside the orders of appellate authority, revisional authority as well as that of high court and ruled that the appeal must be disposed based on merits despite the appeal being filed after a significant delay.

9. Those who are preferring condonation of delay applications may quote this case as well as other two supreme court cases to strengthen the argument.

10. The tax officers normally do not entertain appeals filed by the taxpayer after four months quoting that the law does not give them power to condone any delay beyond the limits prescriber in Section 107.

11. A simple solution would be to act fast and file the appeal within the time limits even without seeking any condonation of delay. However, when the delay occurs beyond the control of the taxpayer, filing a writ in the jurisdictional  High court citing all the referred cases herein could be the remedy, wherever amount involved in the dispute is significant.

12. As there are contrary decisions on this issue of condonation of delay, all the high courts may not be lenient and avoiding any delay in preferring the appeal is the best solution.

13. All taxpayers as well as tax professionals may exercise CAUTION in matters connected with appeals to be filed in GSTAT as the count down starts from the date of notification which may be notified anytime by the Government on the recommendations of the GST Council, for filing appeal before the appellate Tribunal as contained in Section 112 for all orders passed till such date on which the notification is being issued.

14. Appeal to Tribunal shall be preferred within a period of three months from the date of the order which is sought to be appealed, after the date of the notification issued as referred in para 13.