Facts of the Case

This writ petition, W.P.(C) No. 17543 of 2023, was filed by M/s. Sushama Electricals Works, Bhubaneswar, against the Commissioner of CT & GST, Odisha, Cuttack, and other opposite parties, arising under the composite GST framework administered by the state Commercial Tax (CT) and GST wing together with the central CGST authorities. The matter was taken up through hybrid mode before a Division Bench of the Acting Chief Justice Dr. B. R. Sarangi and Justice Murahari Sri Raman. Rather than recording independent facts about the underlying dispute, notice, or order impugned, the Court's order dated 08.11.2023 disposed of the petition strictly "in terms of" a common order passed on 6 November 2023 in W.P.(C) No. 6684 of 2023 and a batch of connected writ petitions titled M/s. Pravat Kumar Choudhury and others v. Additional State Tax Officer, CT & GST, Cuttack and others. Because the parent batch order is not reproduced in the text of this disposal, the substantive facts, grievance, and reasoning that actually govern this petitioner's outcome lie in the lead Pravat Kumar Choudhury judgment rather than in this two-paragraph order.

Issues Involved

  1. Whether the grievance raised by M/s. Sushama Electricals Works against the Commissioner of CT & GST, Odisha stood squarely covered by the common order passed in the Pravat Kumar Choudhury batch of writ petitions.
  2. Whether any independent adjudication of this petitioner's case was necessary, or whether disposal by cross-reference to the batch order sufficed.

Petitioner's Arguments

  • Counsel for the petitioner, Mr. R. C. Jena, appeared before the Division Bench; the order does not record any separately argued submissions, indicating that the petitioner's case was accepted by both sides as falling within the scope of the batch already decided in Pravat Kumar Choudhury.
  • By virtue of being clubbed with the batch, the petitioner's underlying grievance is presumed to mirror the common grievance addressed in the lead matter, W.P.(C) No. 6684 of 2023, concerning action taken by CT & GST authorities.

Respondent's Arguments

  • Standing Counsel for the CT & GST Department (Mr. Sunil Mishra with Mr. Diganta Das, Mr. Sheshadeba Das and Mr. Ananda Das) and Senior/Junior Standing Counsel for CGST, CX & Customs entered appearance, but no separately recorded contentions appear in this brief order.
  • The presence of counsel for both the state CT & GST wing and the central CGST/CX/Customs wing confirms that the dispute touched both limbs of the dual GST administration, consistent with the composite nature of the regime.

Court Order/Findings

  • The Court held, without independent reasoning of its own, that the writ petition stood disposed of "in terms of" the common order dated 6 November 2023 passed in W.P.(C) No. 6684 of 2023 and the batch of connected petitions (Pravat Kumar Choudhury and others v. Additional State Tax Officer, CT & GST, Cuttack and others).
  • The operative ratio is therefore not independently stated in this order; it is borrowed wholesale from the parent batch judgment, which this text does not set out.
  • No liberty or further direction specific to this petitioner is separately recorded in the order.

Important Clarification

When a High Court disposes of a writ petition "in terms of" a common or batch order, the operative reasoning and the actual relief granted must be traced to the parent judgment. A reader relying only on a batch-tagged disposal order, as here, will not find the substantive ratio within that document itself and must separately locate and read the lead judgment — in this case, Pravat Kumar Choudhury v. Additional State Tax Officer, CT & GST — to understand what relief, if any, was actually made available to similarly placed CT & GST assessees.

Sections Involved

  • Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and the Odisha Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 – the composite GST framework jointly administered by the CT & GST Department, Odisha and central CGST authorities, under which the underlying dispute (not detailed in this order) presumably arose.
  • Batch/common-order disposal practice of the Orissa High Court – a procedural mechanism by which multiple similarly placed writ petitions are disposed of by reference to one lead judgment instead of repeating reasoning in each order.

Decision – In Favour of

No independent finding for or against the petitioner is recorded in this order; it is a purely administrative/procedural disposal that ties the outcome to the parent batch judgment. Honestly read, this is neither an assessee-win nor a department-win on its own terms – the actual result for M/s. Sushama Electricals Works depends entirely on the relief granted in the Pravat Kumar Choudhury common order, which this text does not reproduce.

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. 17543 of 2023
  • CNR: Not available on record
  • Coram: Acting Chief Justice Dr. B. R. Sarangi and Justice Murahari Sri Raman
  • Decision Date: 08 November 2023
  • Disposal Nature: Disposed of in terms of common order (batch GST matter)

Link to Download the Order

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