Facts of the Case

The petitioner, M/s Sheo Shankar Trading Company (GSTIN 10ACFFS6365P1ZP), had its Input Tax Credit claim rejected by an order dated 25.05.2022 passed by the Joint Commissioner of State Tax, Shahabad, Patna West, Bihar. No appeal was filed against that order under Section 107 of the Bihar Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, which allows an appeal within three months, extendable by a further one month on satisfactory cause. Instead, the petitioner approached the High Court directly under Article 226, well after the normal appeal window had closed.

The Court took note of the Supreme Court's suo motu order in In Re: Cognizance for Extension of Limitation (Suo Motu Writ Petition (C) No. 3 of 2020), which had excluded the period from 15.03.2020 to 28.02.2022 for limitation purposes on account of the pandemic, and had further directed that appeals could be filed within ninety days from 01.03.2022. Applying this, the Court calculated that an appeal against the 25.05.2022 order could still have been filed on or before 29.05.2022 — a facility the petitioner did not avail of.

Issues Involved

  1. Whether the writ petition against the ITC-rejection order was maintainable when the statutory appeal remedy, including the Supreme Court's extended COVID limitation window, had not been availed of.

Petitioner's Arguments

  • The impugned order rejecting the ITC claim under Annexure-7 dated 25.05.2022 was illegal and warranted interference.
  • The petitioner sought to invoke the Court's extraordinary writ jurisdiction under Article 226 directly against the assessment order.

Respondent's Arguments

  • No specific rival contentions of the respondents are separately recorded; the Bench itself computed the limitation position from the Supreme Court's suo motu extension order and found the statutory appeal window had not been used.

Court Order / Findings

  • The Court held that Section 107 of the BGST Act, 2017 provides for an appeal within three months, extendable by one further month for sufficient cause.
  • Applying the Supreme Court's suo motu limitation-extension order, the Court found that, even after accounting for the COVID-19 extension, an appeal against the 25.05.2022 order could have been filed on or before 29.05.2022.
  • Since this provision was not availed of by the petitioner, the Court found no reason to invoke its extraordinary writ jurisdiction under Article 226, especially as a writ is not ordinarily a substitute for an available alternate statutory remedy.
  • The Writ Petition was dismissed.

Important Clarification

Taxpayers should treat statutory appeal deadlines under Section 107 of the GST Act as firm, and factor in the Supreme Court's COVID-era limitation-extension order only as a one-time, already-expired relaxation — not an open-ended window. Once even that extended period has lapsed without an appeal being filed, a High Court is unlikely to entertain a writ petition against the original order purely to bypass a missed deadline.

Sections Involved

  • Bihar Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 — Section 107 (appeal to Appellate Authority)
  • Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 — Input Tax Credit provisions
  • Constitution of India, 1950 — Article 226

Decision – In Favour of

Disposed of against the petitioner — the writ petition was dismissed for non-availment of the statutory appellate remedy, without any finding on the merits of the ITC rejection.

Case Details

  • Court: High Court of Judicature at Patna
  • Case No.: Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No. 3891 of 2023
  • Coram: Chief Justice K. Vinod Chandran and Justice Madhuresh Prasad
  • Date of Order: 02.05.2023

Link to Download the Order

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