TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
Section 157 of the CGST Act, 2017 protects tax officials from all sort of unsustainable demands raised.
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....ection 157 of the CGST Act, 2017 protects tax officials from all sort of unsustainable demands raised.<br>By: - K Balasubramanian<br>Goods and Services Tax - GST<br>Dated:- 23-9-2026<br>Section 157 of the CGST Act, 2017 protects tax officials from all sort of unsustainable demands raised during adjudication. I had the occasion to come across number of unsustainable adjudication orders in the course of my professional engagements and I use to wonder as to whether the CGST law is meant only for the taxpayers and the tax officials are above the law. The answer is a definite no and that is why for smooth administration of the law, section 157 of the CGST Act, 2017 is in force. It is not the case that the protection is 100% and in respect of ....
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....each and every activity/ violation done by the tax officials during adjudication or first appeal level is automatically protected. Section 157 reads as "157. (1) No suit, prosecution or other legal proceedings shall lie against the President, State President, Members, officers or other employees of the Appellate Tribunal or any other person authorised by the said Appellate Tribunal for anything which is in good faith done or intended to be done under this Act or the rules made thereunder. (2) No suit, prosecution or other legal proceedings shall lie against any officer appointed or authorised under this Act for anything which is done or intended to be done in good faith under this Act or the rules made thereunder". Sub-section 1 is pe....
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....rfectly in order as out of 1000 orders passed by the GSTAT, 999 are bound to be on good faith as the honourable members of GSTAT are NOT CBIC officials and they are not reporting to CBIC. The members, especially technical members though come from CBIC background, when sit as a member in GSTAT pass a 100% unbiased order which fact is coming out during last two months from several GSTAT orders. If at all there is 0.1% deviation, that is only due to legal interpretation which is definitely in good faith. I am only on sub section 2. It reads as "No suit, prosecution or other legal proceedings shall lie against any officer appointed or authorised under this Act for anything which is done or intended to be done in good faith under this Act or ....
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....the rules made thereunder". It is to be noted that this section should be read by giving 200% weightage to the three words "IN GOOD FAITH". The moot questions that arise now are as below. Is the CGST officials above the law?. A taxpayer is often subjected to levy of penalty under section 125 even for minor procedural lapses or even inadvertent error which do not have any implication on tax amount. That being so, why section 125 is not invoked on the GST officials for the violation of the following. No Section Violation 1 75 (4) 1000s of adjudication orders are passed without any personal hearing. 2 75(7) Amount confirmed in adjudication far exceeds the demand proposed in the show cause notice. 3 74 Wro....
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....ngly invoked for the year 2024-25 which is covered under 74A 4 74 Wrongly invoked even without application of mind. Two recent supreme court orders and few high court orders have set aside those adjudication orders. 5 73/ 74 Single Show Cause Notice for multiple years which is adjudicated as such. However, this issue is yet to settle. 6 126 Levy of excessive penalty for minor errors which does not commensurate with the violation 7 74A Passing adjudication order within 60 days from SCN date by not allowing the taxpayer to take advantage of lesser penalty by paying GST and interest within 60 days 8 73/ 74 Confirming demand without considering reply by taxpayer on GSTR 2 and GSTR 3 differences in....
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.... violation of CBIC Circular. It is abundantly clear that the law is only one set and there is no separate set for GST officials on an exclusive manner. If that is the case, why the violation of the above cases which are only illustrative and not exhaustive are not subject to invocation of section 125 on the erring tax officials. When a quasi- judicial officer passes an order in gross violation of a particular section, how it will be covered under done or intended to be done in good faith under this Act or the rules made thereunder". During the last three months, various final orders on GST issues were passed by the GSTAT, High Courts as well as the Supreme Court which brings us to light how badly the adjudication orders were passed an....
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....d which were finally set aside and quashed. Conclusion: Times are changing. Golden period for tax officials already ended in September 2025 when the 56th GST Council meeting operationalised the GSTAT. A case of imposition of Rs. 50,000 as cost on one erring tax officials is already passed by one High Court and GSTAT also may follow the same. The president of GSTAT is a retired high court chief justice who has enormous powers even to pass strictures on erring tax officials. It is only an alarm to all tax officials to awake from their sleep at least now as any continuation of the violations as listed above in the table shall come to light before GSTAT very quickly as GSTAT is fully operational. Several benches do not have even basic infras....
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....tructure and operate from CBIC premises as their own offices are not available as of now, even at Chennai which operates at Customs House. Despite all such odds, even complicated issues are finding the solutions at GSTAT. The officers from State must not consider the GSTAT with state sales tax appellate tribunals which took even 10 years to pass final orders. Within 3 months, almost all benches have started working and many issues are likely to be settled by end December 2026. The choice is that of the GST officers as whether they wish orders passed by them stand the test of time and are sustained at higher fora or they wish that their orders be set aside or even quashed as we are in GSTAT regime now. =============<br> Scholarly articles....
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