A writ petition may be entertained when the statutory appellate...

A writ petition may be entertained when the statutory appellate forum is not constituted or functional, but only to avoid leaving the aggrieved party remediless. Once the appellate forum became functional and the appeal period was extended through the notified mechanism, the writ court declined to keep the matter pending and left the dispute to the Tribunal. The earlier non-functioning of the forum did not waive the statutory pre-deposit condition for a second appeal. The petitioner was directed to file the statutory appeal before the GST Appellate Tribunal within the prescribed timeline after complying with the required deposit, without any examination of the merits of the first appellate order.

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