GSTAT (PROCEDURE) RULES – PART 12

Central Government has notified the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (Procedure) Rules, 2025(in short, GSTAT Procedure Rules). These shall come into force w.e.f. 24.04.2025, i.e., date of publication in Official Gazette.

Following is the summary of the Rules relating to Procedure for Institution of Appeals (Chapter III- Rule 99 to 114):

Disposal of cases and pronouncement of orders (Chapter XIII - Rule 99 to 114)

Disposal of Cases (Rule 99)

• GSTAT has to pass such orders as it thinks fit:

• on receipt of an application, petition, appeal etc, the Appellate Tribunal, and
• after giving the parties a reasonable opportunity of being heard.

• GSTAT can also summarily dismiss the appeal:

• after considering the same
• on recording of reasons
• if in its opinion, there are  no sufficient grounds for proceeding with the said appeal.

Operative portion of the Order (Rule 100)

• All orders or directions of the Bench shall be stated in clear and precise terms.
• This shall be in the last paragraph of the order.
• Each page of the order to be initiated by Member(s) at the bottom.

Corrections (Rule 101)

• Every Member of the Bench who has prepared the order shall affix his initials at the bottom of each page.
• All corrections shall also be initialed.

Power to impose Costs (Rule 102)

• The Appellate Tribunal may, in its discretion, pass such order in respect of imposing costs on the defaulting party as it may deem fit.
• This power is to be exercised as a discretion, i.e., it is not mandatory and may depend on case to case.

Pronouncement of Order (Rule 103)

• Orders shall be pronounced by the Appellate Tribunal after hearing the applicant and respondent.
• Appellate Tribunal shall make and pronounce an order either at once or, as soon as thereafter as may be practicable but not later than thirty days from the final hearing excluding vacations or holidays, i.e., 30 working days.
• Every order of the Appellate Tribunal shall be in writing.
• It shall be signed and dated by the President or Member(s) constituting the Bench which heard the case and pronounced the order.
• A certified copy of every order passed by the Appellate Tribunal shall be given to the parties.
• The Appellate Tribunal, may transmit order made by it to any court for enforcement.
• Such transmission of order may be:

• either on application made by any of the parties, or
• suo motu basis

• Every order or judgment or notice shall bear the seal of the Appellate Tribunal except if the order is passed online and digitally signed.

Pronouncement of order by any one Member of the Bench (Rule 104)

• If there are more than one Member in the Bench, any Member of the Bench may pronounce the order for and on behalf of the Bench.
• For orders pronounced under Rule 104, the Court officer shall make a note in the order sheet, that the order of the Bench consisting of President or Members was pronounced in open court on behalf of the Bench.

Authorising any Member to pronounce Order (Rule 105)

• President may authorize any other Member, other than who heard the case, to pronounce the order, if the situation so warrants, i.e.,

• not readily available, or
• ceased to be member

• If the Members of the Bench who heard the case are not readily available or have ceased to be Members of the Appellate Tribunal, the President may authorise any other Member to pronounce the order on his behalf.
• However, this shall be done only after being satisfied that the order has been duly prepared and signed by all the Members who heard the case.
• The Member so authorised for pronouncement of the order shall affix his signature in the order sheet of the case stating that he has pronounced the order as per authorization in this rule.
• The order pronounced by the Member so authorised shall be deemed to be duly pronounced.
• There may be cases where order cannot be signed by reason of death, retirement or resignation or for any other reason by anyone of the Members of the Bench who heard the case.
• In such cases, it shall be deemed to have been released from “part heard” and listed afresh for hearing.

Recusal (Rule 106)

• The President or a Member of the Appellate Tribunal shall recuse himself-

• in any case involving persons with whom the President or the Member has or had a personal, familial or professional relationship.
• in any case concerning which the President or the Member has previously been called upon in another capacity, including as advisor, representative, expert or witness, or
• if there exist other circumstances such as to make the President or the Member‘s participation seem inappropriate.

• The President or any Member recusing himself may record reasons for recusal.
• No party to the proceedings or any other person shall have a right to know the reasons for recusal by the President or the Member in the case.
• This recusal shall be done for maintaining high standards and integrity of the Appellate Tribunal.

Enlargement of time (Rule 107)

• Appellate Tribunal at its discretion from time to time in the interest of justice and for reasons to be recorded, enlarge time period.
• However, Appellate Tribunal will have to record reasons for such extension.
• This may be done even after the expiration of time granted under the rules or by the Appellate Tribunal.
• This enlargement of time applies to following situations:

• where any period is fixed by / under the rules, or
• where time is granted by the Appellate Tribunal

for the purpose of:

• doing any act, or
• filing of any document, or
• representation

Rectification of Order (Rule 108)

• Following mistakes / errors in any order can be rectified:

• any clerical mistakes in any order of the Appellate Tribunal, or
• error therein arising from any accidental slip or omission.

• Correction may be done by Appellate Tribunal at any time.
• Rectification may be done by the Appellate Tribunal :

• on its own motion
• application of any party (applicant / respondent)

• Application for rectification of order:

• can be made by any party
• shall be made online
• shall be in prescribed form, GSTAT Form-01
• shall be made within one month from the date of final order.

• GSTAT Form-01 is an interlocutory application as per Rule 29 or 49 of Rules.

General power to amend (Rule 109)

• Appellate Tribunal can amend any defect or error in any proceeding before it.
• Such amendment may be done within a period of thirty days from the date of completion of pleadings.
• It may be on such terms and costs as Appellate Tribunal may think fit
• All such necessary amendments shall be made for the purpose of determining the real question or issue raised by or depending on such proceeding.

Making of entries by Court officer (Rule 110)

• The Court officer shall make necessary endorsement on the case file regarding the date of such pronouncement, the nature of disposal and the constitution of the Bench pronouncing the order.
• This shall be done immediately on pronouncement of an order by the Bench.
• Court officer shall also make necessary entries in the court diary which shall include all the information as specified in Form GSTAT CDR-02 maintained by him.
• Form GSTAT CDR-02 is order sheet required under Rule 54.

Transmission of Order by the Court officer (Rule 111)

• Court officer shall immediately on pronouncement of order, transmit the order with the case file to the Deputy Registrar or Assistant Registrar.
• Thereafter, Deputy / Assistant Registrar shall scrutinize the order for compliance with the Rules.
• Deputy / Assistant Registrar shall satisfy himself that the provisions of these rules have been duly complied with and in token thereof affix, his initials with date on the outer cover of the order.
• Deputy Registrar or Assistant Registrar shall thereafter cause to transmit the case file and the order to the Registrar for taking steps to prepare copies.
• Registrar shall communicate order to the parties.

Format of Order (Rule 112)

• All orders shall be neatly and fairly typewritten in double space on one side only on durable foolscap folio paper of metric A-4 size (30.5 cm long and 21.5 cm wide) with left side margin of 5 cm and right-side margin of 2.5 cm.
• Corrections, if any, in the order shall be carried out neatly and sufficient space may be left both at the bottom and at the top of each page of the order to make its appearance elegant.
• Members constituting the Bench shall affix their signatures in the order of their seniority from right to left.

Indexing of case files after disposal (Rule 113)

• After order is communicated to the parties or their authorized representatives, concerned officer of Appellate Tribunal shall:

• arrange the records with pagination
• prepare in the Index Sheet in Format prescribed by the Appellate Tribunal.
• affix initials, and
• transmit the records with the Index initials to the records room.

Copies of Orders in library (Rule 114)

• The Registry official send copies of every final order to the library of the Appellate Tribunal.
• Copies of all orders received in each month shall be kept at the library in a separate folder, arranged in the order of date of pronouncement.
• Such order shall be duly indexed and stitched.
• At the end of every year, a consolidated index shall also be prepared and kept in a separate file in the library.
• The order folders and the indices may be made available for reference in the library to the authorised representative.

(To be continued…..)

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