Facts of the Case

The petitioner, Kamalakanta Nayak, filed a writ petition before the High Court of Orissa at Cuttack against the Additional CT & GST Officer, Balasore Circle, Mayurbhanj, and other opposite parties, in relation to a grievance arising under the Odisha Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. The matter was taken up through hybrid mode. Rather than recording independent facts, arguments or reasoning, the Division Bench comprising the Acting Chief Justice and Justice Murahari Sri Raman disposed of the petition in a single operative line, holding that it stood governed by a common order dated 06.11.2023 passed 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. The text of that underlying common order, and hence the precise grievance and relief it addresses, is not set out in this order sheet. This pattern of disposal is common before this Bench where a batch of similarly placed CT & GST dealers has raised a shared grievance against local tax officers, and a lead matter has already been decided laying down the governing principle for the entire batch.

Issues Involved

  1. Whether the petitioner's grievance against the Addl. CT & GST Officer, Balasore Circle, is governed by, and stands disposed of in terms of, the common order rendered in the Pravat Kumar Choudhury batch of writ petitions.

Petitioner's Arguments

  • Not separately recorded in this order; the petition appears to have proceeded on the basis that it raised the same grievance against the CT & GST authorities as the batch of matters covered by the Pravat Kumar Choudhury common order.

Respondent's Arguments

  • Not separately recorded in this order; the CT & GST Department did not contest that the petition fell within the scope of the common order relied upon.

Court Order/Findings

  • The Court, without recording any independent reasoning, disposed of the writ petition in terms of the common order dated 06.11.2023 passed in W.P.(C) No.6684 of 2023 and batch (M/s. Pravat Kumar Choudhury and others v. Additional State Tax Officer, CT & GST, Cuttack and others).
  • No separate operative directions specific to this petitioner appear on the face of the order sheet.

Important Clarification

When the Orissa High Court disposes of a writ petition "in terms of" a named common or batch order, the actual relief available to that particular petitioner can only be ascertained by reading the underlying common judgment. A one-line disposal order of this kind carries no independent ratio of its own; readers relying on it for the substantive law should always locate and read the referenced batch order — here, the common order dated 06.11.2023 in the Pravat Kumar Choudhury batch — rather than treating the short disposal order as authority in itself. This is a recurring drafting practice of the Orissa High Court in GST matters: once a legal question common to several similarly placed dealers is settled in a lead or batch matter, subsequent petitions raising the same grievance are cleared off the board through short, cross-referencing orders rather than being reasoned afresh each time.

Sections Involved

  • Odisha Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 — the general statute under which the CT & GST authorities were proceeding; the specific provision at issue is not identifiable from the text of this order alone.
  • W.P.(C) No.6684 of 2023 and batch (Pravat Kumar Choudhury and others) — the lead common order dated 06.11.2023 whose terms govern the disposal of this and other connected petitions before the same Bench.

Decision – In Favour of

This is a purely procedural disposal, and no independent finding is recorded on the face of this order. The outcome for the petitioner depends entirely on the terms of the common order in the Pravat Kumar Choudhury batch, which is referenced but not reproduced here. It would be inaccurate to characterise this order, standing alone, as a decision in favour of either the Assessee or the Department.

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.35784 of 2023
  • CNR: Not available
  • Coram: Acting Chief Justice Dr. B.R. Sarangi and Justice Murahari Sri Raman
  • Decision Date: 09.11.2023
  • Disposal Nature: Disposed of in terms of a common GST order

Link to Download the Order

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