Whether the brain was within the head or kept at the Egmore Museum?.

At the outset, I appeal to all tax professionals who represent the taxpayer before GSTAT or High Court, despite taxpayer being the appellant or the respondent as the case may be to insist the bench to impose cost on erring tax officials as well as to pass strictures against the concerned officers for making the taxpayer to suffer, especially when there is absolutely no fault on the taxpayer but the tax officer has wrongly applied a provision or exceeded his limits. I have been reiterating through various articles that GST officials are bound to abide the CGST Act and Section 157(2) is conditional. The sub section reads as " No suit, prosecution or other legal proceedings shall lie against any officer appointed or authorized under this Act for anything which is done or intended to be done in GOOD FAITH under this Act or the rules made thereunder". There is a mistaken belief amongst tax officials that the protection is blanket and the condition " good faith" is precedent.

Be that as it may, as I was updating my knowledge on the recent rulings of GSTAT on 07/11/2026 amidst Deepavali celebrations, I happen to see the order of GSTAT Bhopal dated 04/11/2026 as reported in Butulu Majhi Versus Pradhan Traders - 2026 (11) TMI 354 - GSTAT BHOPAL which prompted me to write this article so that this case law must get wide publicity. It is really an interesting story wherein a taxpayer got a tax relief of Rs. 2,44,144 on 27/12/2024 through the first appeal. The department was unhappy on such relief to the taxpayer and as usual decided to go for GSTAT against that OIA. The second appeal was filed by the Revenue on 26/03/2026. The case was admitted for hearing on 31/08/2026. At the time of final hearing, Revenue was referred to CBIC Circular dated 26/06/2024 wherein a monetary limit for Revenue appeals before GSTAT set at Rs. 20,00,000 and the counsel for revenue was requested to offer his explanations on this. On understanding that justification of filing this appeal on 26/03/2026 despite a CBIC Circular in place on 26/06/2024 itself is absolutely not possible, sought withdrawal of the second appeal. The division bench was magnanimous in entertaining such request for withdrawal of second appeal by Department subject to imposition of cost of Rs. 25,000 on the officer who has filed the second appeal before GSTAT which is to be paid to the respondent towards litigation cost latest by 04/12/2026.

There are cases like the division bench of GSTAT, Surat has passed a detailed order on 29/09/2026 in the matter of The Assistant Commissioner of CGST & Central Excise, Vadodara-II Versus Rutu Chemicals - 2026 (10) TMI 292 - GSTAT SURAT . The second one on identical manner is Amber Kumar Bhaskar Versus M/s. S. & G. Pharma. - 2026 (8) TMI 1789 - GSTAT AGRA. In both the cases, the revenue appeal was dismissed, though without imposition of any cost.

The new trend is most welcome one. Imposition of cost as well as passing of strictures are required in all the appropriate cases as the bench may deem fit. Thiruvalluvar is a great Tamil Poet and author of the book Thirukkural which is renowned over the Globe. He has amongst many other things suggested two things which was violated by the petitioner and accordingly he is made to suffer not only by way of dismissal of the appeal but also due to imposition of cost of Rs. 25,000. The lessons of the great poet are, think twice or even thrice before deciding to do something, as once done, revisit would not cure. In a like manner, the poet also says do whatever is fit to be done as not doing that may give trouble. If something is not good and not required to be done, it should not be done. In case that is done, it will all create damage. The tax officers all over India may kindly take note of the above. For the benefit of readers who are from Tamil Nadu, the quotes are

Let us move further to suggest all the tax officials all over India to be vigilant at all levels such as conduct of audit, issuing the show cause notice, passing the order in original as well as passing the order in appeal as consequent to more than 500 final orders by GSTAT benches on core GST issues, things are different as on date. It is in the interest of all the tax officials that they may refer to GSTAT portal https://www.gstat.gov.in/e-journals at least once in every 15 days to get them updated on the recent GSTAT orders which are available absolutely free for even downloading the relevant extracts. Gone are the days where the GST official could distinguish a case as not exactly the same now as GST is One Nation - One Tax and all the provisions of CGST Act are applicable all over India.

This article as well as the caption (topic) must be taken in the right as well as most appropriate perspective. There is no intention to hurt or criticize any one as the author is not gaining anything by doing that but still language is little bit harsh as well as catchy only with the intention that the officers may act pro-actively to save themselves in future from imposition of cost as well as passing of strictures. In appropriate cases, the respective benches are empowered to even issue instructions for issuance of charge sheet on the erring tax official, when the damage caused due to the action of the officer is extensive as well as severe.