Facts of the Case

The petitioner, Brahmananda Panda, filed a writ petition before the High Court of Orissa at Cuttack against the Union of India and others, including the CT & GST Department, Odisha, and the CGST, Central Excise and Customs authorities, arising out of proceedings under the Odisha Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. Like several other petitions before the same Bench, this matter was one of a batch of writ petitions raising a common grievance against action taken by the GST authorities, previously considered together with the lead case, W.P.(C) No.6684 of 2023 and connected petitions, styled M/s. Pravat Kumar Choudhury and others v. Additional State Tax Officer, CT & GST, Cuttack and others, in which a common order was passed on 6 November 2023. When the present petition was taken up on 8 November 2023 through hybrid mode, it was disposed of in terms of that common order, without independent adjudication of the petitioner's specific facts. As with the other petitions disposed of on that day in the same batch, the order itself does not set out the impugned notice, the amount in dispute, or the individual grounds raised by this particular petitioner, since the Bench proceeded directly on the footing that the controversy stood already resolved by the earlier common order.

Issues Involved

  1. Whether the petitioner's grievance fell within the scope of the common order already passed in the Pravat Kumar Choudhury batch.
  2. Whether the present writ petition could be disposed of on the strength of that common order without separate reasoning specific to this petitioner.
  3. Whether any party sought independent adjudication of the facts distinct from the batch.

Petitioner's Arguments

  • The petitioner's counsel did not press for separate adjudication, treating the grievance as covered by the common order already passed in the lead batch of petitions.
  • The petitioner was content to have the matter disposed of on the same terms as the common order dated 6 November 2023.

Respondent's Arguments

  • The Standing Counsel for the CT & GST Department and the Senior/Junior Standing Counsel for CGST, Central Excise and Customs did not raise any objection to the petition being disposed of consistent with the common order already passed in the batch matters.

Court Order/Findings

  • The Court noted that the matter was taken up through hybrid mode and that its facts were identical to those already governed by the common order dated 6 November 2023 in W.P.(C) No.6684 of 2023 and the connected batch.
  • The writ petition was disposed of in terms of the common order passed in the Pravat Kumar Choudhury batch, without recording independent reasoning specific to this petitioner.

Important Clarification

  • Where multiple writ petitions raise a common grievance against the same category of GST action, courts frequently decide a lead matter and dispose of the connected petitions by applying that common order rather than repeating the reasoning in each case.
  • A reader relying on this disposal for precedent value should examine the underlying common order dated 6 November 2023 in W.P.(C) No.6684 of 2023 to understand the actual ratio applied to the batch.
  • The involvement of both the CGST and CT & GST Standing Counsel in this matter, despite the sole operative direction being disposal per the common order, indicates that the underlying grievance likely touched proceedings common to both the central and state GST administrations.

Sections Involved

  • Odisha Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 — the state statute under which the underlying CT & GST proceedings against the petitioner arose.
  • Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 — the corresponding central enactment under which parity of the underlying GST action was assessed.
  • Article 226, Constitution of India, 1950 — the writ jurisdiction invoked by the petitioner before the High Court.

Decision – In Favour of

This is a batch-reference disposal recording no independent finding for or against either the Assessee or the Department; it simply extends the common order passed on 6 November 2023 in the Pravat Kumar Choudhury batch to this petitioner's case. Whether the outcome ultimately favours the Assessee or the Department depends entirely on the terms of that common order.

Related Case Laws

No directly on-point case notes are currently published on this site.

Case Details

  • Court: High Court of Orissa at Cuttack
  • Case No.: W.P.(C) No. 27139 of 2023
  • CNR: Not available
  • Coram: Acting Chief Justice Dr. B.R. Sarangi and Justice Murahari Sri Raman
  • Decision Date: 8 November 2023
  • Disposal Nature: Disposed of in terms of common order (Pravat Kumar Choudhury batch)

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