Yes, the Honorable Madras High Court in the case of M/s. Great Heights Developers LLP v. Additional Commissioner Office of the Commissioner of CGST & Central Excise, Chennai [Writ Petition No. 1324 of 2024 dated 01.02.2024] allowed the appeal before the Appellate Authority and held that if the Taxpayer demonstrates that the delay in filing appeal was due to valid mitigating circumstances such as medical condition then the Appellate Authority can condone delay and consider appeal on its merits.
The Honorable Madras High Court noted that under Section 107 of the CGST Act, the Appellate Authority does not have the power to condone delay beyond 120 days i.e. sub-section (4) of Section 107 of the CGST Act, the appeal can be filed within the period of three months or six months, as the case may be, allow it to be presented within a further period of one month. In the current case, the period of further delay is only 24 days and the Petitioner has provided cogent reasons to explain such delay. It is pertinent to note that the Petitioner has paid the entire tax liability and the proposed appeal is limited to penalty and interest. The Honorable Court held that the Appellate Authority receive and dispose of the appeal on merits if the appeal is received within a maximum period of ten days from the date of receipt of a copy of this order.
Author’s Comments:
Belated appeals are permitted up to a maximum of one month under section 107(4) after the end of the due date for filing appeal under section 107(1) or (2/3). Appellate Authority has power to condone delay, but this power cannot be expected by the Appellant to be exercised in a routine manner and automatically Condone the delay. Limitation Act, 1963 states in section 5 and 14 that “sufficient cause” must be shown to justify the delay.
The principle of law is that the time to file an appeal lapses, the counterparty gets a vested right (or advantage or benefit from such failure) which cannot be denied by condonation of appeal in a routine and mechanical manner without ‘good and sufficient’ reasons.
When an appeal is filed after the period of condonation permitted in section 107(4), the Appellate authority does not have statutory authority to condone the delay, not even if the reasons are ample and deserve to be entertained. The appeal must be dismissed for being fatally belated because the Legislature has allowed Appellate authority this much authority and not more. The Honorable Apex court has declared in Singh Enterprises v. CCE 2008(221) ELT 163 that where the period of limitation is specifically provided in the statute admitting appeals albeit for ‘sufficient cause’ would render statutory provision impossible. And Appellate Authority thus being the denuded of authority to condone (due to lapse of maximum time permitted) is barred and examining the cause, much less its sufficiency.
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