Administrative circular cannot override refund rules; manual refund claim rejection was set aside and remitted for merits consideration.

A refund claim filed manually could not be rejected merely because an administrative circular said manual refund claims would not be processed, where no rule or regulation prohibited that filing mode. Rule 11(2) of the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Rules, 2007 governed the refund procedure, and the circular could not override or curtail the statutory rule. The rejection based only on the circular was therefore unsustainable, and the order was set aside with a direction to consider the refund claim on merits and in accordance with law.

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Issues: Whether a circular could bar manual filing of a refund claim in the absence of any rule or regulation prohibiting such filing, and whether the rejection of the manually filed Form 'W' refund claim was sustainable.

Analysis: The circular issued by the commercial tax authority stated that manually filed refund claims on or after 01.01.2012 would not be processed, but no rule or regulation was shown to support such a restriction. Rule 11(2) of the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Rules, 2007 governed the refund claim procedure, and an administrative circular could not abridge or override that rule. Since the rejection rested on a circular unsupported by the governing rules, the impugned order could not stand.

Conclusion: The rejection of the manually filed refund claim was unsustainable and the order was set aside; the authority was directed to consider the claim on merits and in accordance with law.

Ratio Decidendi: An administrative circular cannot override or curtail a statutory rule, and a refund claim filed manually cannot be rejected solely on the basis of such a circular when the rules do not prohibit that mode of filing.

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