LEGAL NEWS
PIL in Supreme Court seeks directions to Centre to constitute Goods and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal New Delhi on priority
A Public Interest Litigation has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Union of India to constitute the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal New Delhi, on an utmost priority basis in the interest of justice.
The PIL has been filed by Advocate Amit Sahni and Preeti Singh is the Advocate On Record for the Petitioner.
According to the petition, the GST Bill introduced in 2016 passed both the houses of the Parliament, and from 1st July 2017, the Central Goods and Services Act came into force. Section 109 of the Act mandatesd the constitution of a GST Appellate Tribunal which is not constituted even after 4years of the Act being into existence.
It was submitted that by passing CGST (Ninth Removal of Difficulties) Order, 2019 dated 03.12.2019, the Government, on the recommendation of the GST Council, extended the limitation period to file an appeal against the order/direction passed by the Appellate/Revisional Authority from three months to the time till the President of the State President of the Appellate tribunal enters the office.
The Union Of India issued a notification thereby clarifying its stand regarding the non-constitution of the Appellate Tribunal. It cited the Judgement of the High court of Madras in the matter of “Revenue Bar Association v. UOI” WP No. 21147, 21148, and 14919 of 2018 as a reason for non-constitution of the GST Tribunal.
It is pertinent to mention here that the citizen aggrieved of the orders passed by Appellate/Revisional Authority, are constrained to approach respective High Court under 226 by way of Writ Petition in absence of Tribunal and the same is overburdening work of the High Courts as well, said the PIL.