Taxpayer Wins Challenge Against Arbitrary Refund Claim Rejection, Secures Judicial Mandate for Fair Hearing and Compliance HC reviewed a writ petition challenging a refund claim rejection. The Adjudicating Authority defied the Appellate Authority's remand order, prompting ...
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Taxpayer Wins Challenge Against Arbitrary Refund Claim Rejection, Secures Judicial Mandate for Fair Hearing and Compliance
HC reviewed a writ petition challenging a refund claim rejection. The Adjudicating Authority defied the Appellate Authority's remand order, prompting judicial intervention. HC set aside the impugned order, directed the Adjudicating Authority to pass a fresh speaking order within four weeks, providing hearing opportunity to the petitioner. The Commissioner of CGST was instructed to prevent such administrative non-compliance in future proceedings.
Issues involved: Challenge to impugned order rejecting refund claim, defiance of order by Adjudicating Authority, administrative anarchy due to non-compliance.
The High Court of Calcutta heard a writ petition challenging the impugned order dated 21st February, 2022, which rejected the petitioner's claim for refund. The order was passed on the remand order of the Appellate Authority from 26th March, 2021, directing the Adjudicating Authority to consider the petitioner's application and issue a speaking order. The Adjudicating Authority defied the order of the higher Appellate Authority, stating it was not in accordance with the law and thus rejected the refund claim. This behavior was deemed highly deprecable as it went against the norms of quasi-judicial authority's function and could lead to administrative anarchy. The Court emphasized that if the Adjudicating Authority disagreed with the Appellate Authority's order, the proper course of action would have been to file a further appeal. The Commissioner of CGST was directed to take note of this conduct and issue instructions to prevent such incidents in the future.
The learned Advocates for the respondents were unable to defend the conduct of the Adjudicating Authority, which was found to be in violation of the higher Appellate Authority's order.
After considering the facts and submissions of the parties, the High Court set aside the impugned order dated 21st February, 2022, and remanded the matter back to the Adjudicating Authority. The Adjudicating Authority was directed to pass a fresh speaking order in accordance with the law, providing an opportunity for the petitioner or its authorized representative to be heard within four weeks from the date of communication of the order. The writ petition was disposed of with this observation and direction.
A copy of the order was to be forwarded to the Commissioner of CGST by the petitioner for necessary action.
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