The Rajasthan High Court, Jaipur Bench, has permitted a taxpayer to pursue its GST appeal on merits by condoning a 78-day delay in filing the appeal, holding that the circumstances preventing the taxpayer from filing the appeal within the prescribed period were beyond its control.
The Division Bench of Justice Arun Monga and Justice Ashutosh Kumar observed that refusing to adjudicate the dispute on merits would cause grave injury and prejudice to the taxpayer.
The dispute arose from an Order-in-Original passed by the Joint Commissioner, SGST, Circle Dausa. According to the petitioner, the order was uploaded on the GST Common Portal on the same date, but it claimed that it did not have knowledge of the order until August 21, 2024, when recovery was effected from its Electronic Credit Ledger.
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The taxpayer subsequently filed its appeal on November 13, 2024. However, the Appellate Authority, by an order dated June 10, 2026, dismissed the appeal on limitation grounds, taking the view that it lacked the power to condone the delay in filing the appeal. Aggrieved by that decision, the taxpayer approached the Rajasthan High Court through the writ petition filed on July 22, 2026.
Before the High Court, the taxpayer submitted that the delay was bona fide and resulted from circumstances beyond its control.
It was argued that although the adjudication order had been uploaded on the GST portal on April 29, 2024, the petitioner had no knowledge of the order until recovery was made from its Electronic Credit Ledger on August 21, 2024. The petitioner further stated that its GST portal was being managed by its Chartered Accountant and that the email ID registered on the portal belonged to the Chartered Accountant. According to the petitioner, it was never informed about the passing of the adjudication order.
The taxpayer also raised an important issue concerning service of GST orders under Section 169 of the GST Act. Its counsel contended that mere uploading of an order on the GST Common Portal could not, by itself, constitute valid service under Section 169, particularly when no other mode of service or communication had been established by the proper officer.
The petitioner relied upon a series of earlier Division Bench decisions of the Rajasthan High Court, including M/s M R Traders v. UOI, Molana Construction Company v. Central Goods and Service Tax Department & Ors., Man Singh Tanwar v. Commissioner, Central Goods and Services Tax Department & Ors., and RPC PSIPL JV v. State of Rajasthan & Ors.
On the strength of these decisions, the petitioner argued that sufficient cause had been demonstrated for the delay and that the appeal should consequently be permitted to be heard on merits.
The respondents opposed the plea and maintained that the appellate order was correctly passed and that the appeal had become barred by limitation.
The Division Bench acknowledged that the Appellate Authority is bound by the statutory limitation provisions contained in Section 107 of the RGST/CGST Act, 2017. However, the Court made an important distinction between mechanically applying limitation and considering circumstances that prevented a taxpayer from approaching the appellate authority within the prescribed period.
The Court observed that, considering the reasons for which the petitioner could not file the appeal within the stipulated time and the fact that those circumstances were beyond its control, refusing to have the appeal adjudicated on merits would cause “grave injury and prejudice” to the petitioner.
The Court noted that it had taken a consistent approach in the earlier judgments relied upon by the petitioner and had, in those matters, issued directions permitting delayed appeals to be entertained on merits.
The High Court allowed the writ petition to the extent of condoning the 78-day delay in filing the GST appeal, after granting the relaxation referred to in the order under Section 107 of the CGST Act.
The Court consequently set aside the Appellate Authority’s order dated June 10, 2026, which had rejected the appeal on limitation grounds.
The Appellate Authority has now been directed to entertain the taxpayer’s appeal and adjudicate it on merits. The High Court, however, imposed a condition that the appeal must be filed within 30 days from the date on which the High Court’s order is uploaded on its website.
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