TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
26 Oct 2026 
As I begin my morning on 23/10/2026, I observed that GSTAT has so far passed final orders in respect of 529 appeals as on 22/10/2026. The huge, abnormal as well as avoidable delay in making operational of the GSTAT has done huge injustice to the entire taxpayers of the country. The setting up of CESTAT, ITAT as well as NCLT etc. has saved lakhs of cases reaching various high courts. As the concept of Tribunal was well understood and the benefits were crystal clear as on 01/07/2017 itself, ideally the GSTAT should have started functioning in 2020 itself. Be that as it may, due to the intervention of the Supreme Court on 13/12/2024 in the case of Team Computers Private Limited Versus Union of India & Ors. - 2024 (12) TMI 875 - SC Order wherein the Supreme Court mentioned as " We would like to first know at the earliest why the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal has not been made functional till this date", has ensured the setting up of the GSTAT.
Ideal things in life happen only very rarely. The contribution by various benches to all the stakeholders in GST are laudable as it is observed that most of the benches are operating only on leased or Government buildings and that too with huge shortage of support staff. As I am living at Chennai, I visited the Chennai bench of GSTAT on 15/10/2026 and observed that the available space, facilities, support staff etc. are not even to an extent of 50% when compared with the minimum requirements of a bench. Despite several odds, the Chennai bench has 2393 e filed appeals out of which 953 have already been admitted and final order passed in respect of 27 cases. This is a good score when compared with the statistics of the country in terms of admitted appeals. The GSTAT has made available at one place of all the orders passed up to 31/08/2026 at https://www.gstat.gov.in/e-journals and the same is likely to be updated at regular intervals in future.
In order to analyse the trend in which we are getting orders from various benches of the GSTAT, an attempt is being made to cover decisions in batches of 10 each so that the message reaches the readers of taxtmi.com as quickly as possible in terms of operative portions of the order.
A sample size of 10 is too small to arrive at any conclusion except that all the 10 appeals above discussed are mostly allowed, for both taxpayer as well as Revenue. Now it is proposed to go for statistical analysis in part three of this series. However, there are several important things for all stakeholders in GST as below.
- Most of issues are attaining finality at Supreme Court, various high courts as well as the benches of GSTAT level during August and September 2026. It is for the GST officials to take note of all the developments as above and to pass a reasoned order in line with decisions available as on date by a higher court on similar issues.
- The CBIC as all as the Chief Commissioner / State Taxes of all State must instruct the officers who pass OIO as well as OIA to take cognisance of decided cases on similar and identical issues. Any OIO or OIA, which is passed after 01/11/2026 and later set aside or quashed must be viewed as a serious lapse from the quasi- judicial officer who has passed such order.
- The taxpayers have already suffered a lot due to improper invocation of sections like 74, 75, 129 and 130 and that is why the 57th GST Council has approved several proposals on 08/10/2026. As and when such proposals are made applicable, the GST officers all over India are bound to act strictly as per the Circulars/Instructions.
- Days have gone where several officers took a stand that a particular order is not binding in that case, in so far as GSTAT decisions are concerned. It is reiterated at the cost of repetition that the country has ONE and ONLY ONE CGST Act and all the SGST Act, though applicable within that State only, have exactly identical provisions as that of CGST Act. In my view, any order passed by any bench is applicable to all over India until a contrary view is taken by a larger bench or a higher court.
- The authorities must immediately stop passing even a single order without affording an opportunity of personal hearing as this totally against the principles of natural justice.
- The issues those have already settled as on date include improper invocation of Section 74, not affording of personal hearing even in cases where taxpayer has not filed reply to the show cause notice, tax head mismatch, raising demand on entire trade payables etc. Hence the tax officials may pass appropriate orders so that the OIO or OIA is sustained at a later stage as well.
- Last, but not the least is that we are living in real Artificial Intelligence era. It may be possible to trace any of the above case laws by visiting the website of the Bench that passed the order with the help of reference number and date cited as above. Nevertheless, in case any reader is interested in full text, may contact me through e mail.