Facts of the Case

Five separate petitioners — Sri Ram Granites, Varre Hari Babu, Sri Venkateswara Traders (two petitions), and Sree Venkateswara Developers — challenged GST assessment orders in FORM GST DRC-07 for financial years 2018-19 to 2021-22, passed by various Assistant/Deputy Assistant Commissioners across Andhra Pradesh, common ground being the absence of a Document Identification Number (DIN). Some petitions also raised the input tax credit benefit under the newly inserted Section 16(5) of the CGST Act, 2017, and violation of Section 75(4)'s personal-hearing mandate. All the assessment orders under challenge had been passed well before the writ petitions were eventually filed.

Issues Involved

  1. Whether an assessment order lacking a DIN can be treated as invalid regardless of the length of delay in challenging it before the High Court.
  2. Whether inordinate, unexplained delay in filing a writ petition can independently defeat an otherwise well-established DIN-invalidity argument.
  3. Whether the Court's earlier common order dismissing similarly delayed challenges should be followed.

Petitioner's Arguments

  • Relied on the Court's consistent line of authority holding that a GST assessment order without a DIN is invalid, seeking that the impugned orders across the batch be quashed on that basis alone.
  • In some petitions, additionally argued lack of DIN, non-application of mind, double taxation, and denial of personal hearing under Section 75(4).

Respondent's Arguments

  • The Government Pleader for Commercial Tax pointed out that the challenged orders had been passed a considerable time earlier, and the petitioners offered no cogent explanation for approaching the Court only at this belated stage.

Court Order / Findings

  • The Division Bench reaffirmed that it has consistently held a GST assessment order without a DIN to be invalid.
  • However, held that where the orders had been passed quite some time back and no cogent explanation was offered for the delay in filing the writ petitions, the Court would not intervene at such a belated stage, following its own earlier common order in W.P.Nos.20433 of 2025 and batch.
  • Dismissed all five connected writ petitions in the batch, without costs, applying the same reasoning uniformly across the petitions.

Important Clarification

  • The DIN-invalidity ground, though well-settled, is not open-ended: a taxpayer who sleeps over a facially invalid order and approaches the writ court only after significant, unexplained delay may lose the benefit of that ground on account of laches.
  • This ruling operates as an important counter-precedent for the department, cautioning assessees that DIN-based challenges must be pursued promptly and cannot be revived indefinitely.

Sections Involved

  • FORM GST DRC-07, CGST Rules, 2017 – the summary order whose absence of a DIN was under challenge.
  • Section 75(4), CGST Act, 2017 – mandates opportunity of personal hearing, also raised in some of the batch petitions.
  • Section 16(5), CGST Act, 2017 – the retrospectively inserted extended time limit for claiming input tax credit, raised in one of the batch petitions.

Decision – In Favour of

Decided in favour of the department — all five writ petitions in the batch were dismissed on account of the petitioners' delay in approaching the Court, notwithstanding the otherwise settled DIN-invalidity principle.

Case Details

  • Court: High Court of Andhra Pradesh at Amaravati
  • Case No.: Writ Petition Nos.18196, 18661, 18887, 18902 and 19549 of 2025 (Common Order)
  • Coram: Hon'ble Sri Justice R. Raghunandan Rao and Hon'ble Sri Justice T.C.D. Sekhar
  • Date of Order: 10 December 2025

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