Timeliness of appeal filed within court-granted 45-day window; rejection for delay set aside and remanded for fresh consideration

Whether the appeal was barred by delay: HC applied its prior interlocutory ruling granting a 45-day window for institution of appeals; since the present appeal was filed within that window, the rejection for delay was unwarranted. Reasoning: inadvertent failure to cite the Court's earlier decision could not prejudice the appellant where the filing fell within the authorized period. Outcome: the HC set aside the impugned rejection order and remanded the matter to the appellate authority for fresh consideration in accordance with law.

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Issues: Whether the appellate authority validly rejected the statutory appeal as time-barred when the appeal had been filed within the 45-day window granted by the High Court but the memorandum did not mention or enclose the Court's order granting that window.

Analysis: The petitioner filed a statutory appeal under Section 107 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 within the 45-day period of liberty granted by this Court in earlier batch proceedings. The appellate authority rejected the appeal on the ground of delay and communicated the rejection in FORM GST APL 02, while the procedure for rejecting an appeal for delay contemplates use of FORM GST APL 04. The petitioner's memorandum did not refer to or enclose the prior judgment that created the 45-day window. Having regard to the Court's earlier direction permitting appeals within 45 days to be considered on merits and the facts that the appeal was filed within that window and the omission to enclose the judgment was inadvertent, the matter requires reconsideration on merits rather than summary rejection for delay. The appellate authority should be given an opportunity to consider an application enclosing the Court's order and to decide the question of delay and admissibility in accordance with law.

Conclusion: The impugned rejection order dated 31.07.2025 is set aside and the matter is remanded to the appellate authority to consider the appeal on merits after permitting the petitioner to file an application enclosing the Court's judgment; outcome is in favour of the assessee.

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