Pending tax adjudication survives GST transition where savings provisions preserve proceedings and the same officer remains identifiable in law.

Pending tax adjudication was held not to fail merely because the regime shifted from service tax to GST, where deeming and savings provisions preserved ongoing proceedings and the limitation objection was treated as hyper-technical. The challenge that the adjudication was time-barred under the earlier finance law was rejected. The Court also held that no invalidity arose from the final order being signed by the officer who had heard the matter under a changed designation after GST, since the same individual remained identifiable in law and no breach of natural justice was shown. The writ petition was dismissed and the demand determination was upheld.

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Issues: (i) Whether the adjudication order was vitiated on the ground of limitation arising from the transition from the service tax regime to the GST regime; (ii) whether the order was invalid because the officer who heard the matter did not sign the final order.

Issue (i): Whether the adjudication order was vitiated on the ground of limitation arising from the transition from the service tax regime to the GST regime.

Analysis: The challenge rested on the submission that the adjudication should have been completed within the period prescribed under Section 4(B)(b) of the Finance Act, 1994 and that the transition to GST could not justify delay. The Court held that the objections were hyper-technical and that the statutory framework, including the deeming and savings provisions under the GST enactment, protected pending proceedings from being frustrated by the transition.

Conclusion: The limitation-based challenge failed and was rejected.

Issue (ii): Whether the order was invalid because the officer who heard the matter did not sign the final order.

Analysis: The Court accepted the respondents' explanation that the officer who conducted the hearing and the officer who signed the order were the same individual, the change being only in designation after the GST regime came into force. In view of Section 3 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and the repeal and savings provision in Section 174(2)(e) of that Act, no violation of natural justice was made out.

Conclusion: The objection based on a different signatory was rejected.

Final Conclusion: The writ petition was dismissed, the demand determination was upheld, and the transition to GST did not invalidate the pending adjudication.

Ratio Decidendi: Pending tax adjudication is not defeated by a mere change of statutory regime or officer designation where the successor regime contains deeming and savings provisions preserving ongoing proceedings and the same officer remains identifiable in law.

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