Resolution plan finality bars pre-resolution GST claims and invalid recovery; amounts collected under such orders must be refunded.

After approval of a resolution plan under insolvency law, pre-resolution GST claims not included in the plan stand extinguished and cannot be revived through fresh assessment or recovery proceedings. A GST assessment relating to a period before approval of the resolution plan was therefore invalid, because enforcing such liability would undermine the finality of the resolution process and the fresh-start objective for the successful resolution applicant. The assessment order was quashed, and any amount recovered pursuant to it was directed to be refunded.

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Issues: Whether a tax demand and consequential recovery proceedings under the GST law could be sustained after approval of the resolution plan under the insolvency law, and whether the recovered amount was liable to be refunded.

Analysis: The resolution plan had already been approved by the NCLT, and the governing principle is that all claims not forming part of the approved plan stand extinguished. Once the resolution process reaches finality, no creditor can create or enforce a fresh liability for a pre-resolution period, as that would defeat the objective of a fresh start for the successful resolution applicant and disrupt the resolution process. The impugned assessment order related to a period preceding approval of the resolution plan and was therefore hit by this principle. Consequential recovery made pursuant to such order could not survive.

Conclusion: The GST assessment order was quashed and the department was directed to refund any amount recovered in pursuance of that order.

Ratio Decidendi: After approval of a resolution plan, pre-resolution claims not included in the plan cannot be raised or enforced, and any order creating such liability is invalid.

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