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 other opposite parties, including the CT & GST Department and the CGST, Central Excise & Customs authorities, both of whom entered appearance through their respective standing counsel, along with the Deputy Solicitor General for the Union of India. As with a number of connected matters heard on the same day, the Division Bench comprising the Acting Chief Justice and Justice Murahari Sri Raman, sitting through hybrid mode, disposed of the petition without recording independent facts or reasoning, holding that it stood governed by the 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 involvement of both State and Central GST standing counsel suggests the grievance touched both sets of authorities, but the precise contours of the dispute are not set out in this order sheet.

Issues Involved

  1. Whether the petitioner's grievance, involving both the CT & GST Department and the CGST/Central Excise authorities, 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 as the batch of matters covered by the Pravat Kumar Choudhury common order.

Respondent's Arguments

  • Not separately recorded in this order; neither the State CT & GST authorities nor the CGST, Central Excise & Customs authorities, nor the Union of India through the Deputy Solicitor General, are recorded as having contested 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, or to the Central authorities impleaded, appear on the face of the order sheet.

Important Clarification

Where a writ petition impleads both State CT & GST officers and Central GST/Excise authorities but is nonetheless disposed of by simple reference to a common order passed in a batch of similarly placed matters, the reader must consult that common order to know what relief, if any, was actually granted against each set of authorities. A short cross-referencing order of this kind is not an independent precedent and should not be cited for any proposition beyond the fact that the petitioner's grievance was treated as covered by the lead batch order.

Sections Involved

  • Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and Odisha Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 — the general statutes under which the Central and State 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.

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. 27136 of 2023
  • CNR: Not available
  • Coram: Acting Chief Justice Dr. B.R. Sarangi and Justice Murahari Sri Raman
  • Decision Date: 08.11.2023
  • Disposal Nature: Disposed of in terms of a common GST order

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