Electronic filing within time can cure later hard-copy filing; delay condonation must be decided on merits, not technicality.

An electronically filed GST appeal submitted within the extended filing period should not be rejected merely because the hard copy was filed later, as that sequence is a curable procedural step. The delay condonation request must be considered on merits and on the basis of sufficient cause, rather than on a purely technical objection. Where medical documents are relied on to explain delay, the appellant should be given a further opportunity to produce them before any final decision on condonation. The appellate authority's time-bar dismissal was therefore not sustained, and the matter was remitted for fresh consideration of delay condonation.

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Issues: Whether the dismissal of the statutory appeal as time barred was justified when the appeal form was filed within the extended period but the hard copy was filed later, and whether the petitioner should be granted an opportunity to produce medical documents in support of delay condonation.

Analysis: The appeal under the Uttar Pradesh Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 had been lodged electronically within the extended period contemplated for filing, and the subsequent filing of the hard copy was treated as a procedural step that could be completed later. The authority's refusal rested on a technical view of delay and on non-production of medical documents, but the facts showed that the explanation for delay had not been finally examined on merits. In such circumstances, a pedantic approach to the filing sequence was held to be unwarranted, and the delay condonation request required a fresh, reasoned consideration after giving the petitioner one further opportunity to file the necessary medical material.

Conclusion: The dismissal of the appeal as time barred was not sustained, and the matter was remitted to the appellate authority for reconsideration of the delay condonation request after allowing the petitioner to submit the medical documents.

Ratio Decidendi: Where an appeal is electronically filed within the permissible extended period, subsequent filing of the hard copy is a curable procedural step, and the request for condonation of delay must be decided on a reasoned assessment of sufficient cause rather than on a purely technical objection.

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