The Uttarakhand High Court has permitted a group of service tax assessees to seek restoration of their statutory appeals that were dismissed for failure to make the mandatory pre-deposit through the prescribed ICEGATE portal. The petitioners had deposited the required amounts through Form GST DRC-03 on the GST portal.
The bench of Justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari disposed of five writ petitions involving an identical issue, granting the petitioners four weeks to make the prescribed pre-deposit through ICEGATE and apply for restoration of their respective appeals.
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The lead matter concerned a civil contractor registered with the Service Tax Department. The contractor had challenged an order passed by the Superintendent of Service Tax, Haldwani, under Section 73(1) of the Finance Act, 1994.
The petitioner filed an appeal before the Commissioner, Central Goods and Services Tax (Appeals), Dehradun. The appellate authority, however, dismissed the appeal without examining its merits after concluding that the petitioner had failed to fulfil the mandatory pre-deposit condition under Section 35F of the Central Excise Act, 1944.
Before the High Court, the petitioner submitted that the required pre-deposit amount of ₹56,650 had already been paid on July 13, 2022. The payment, however, was inadvertently made through the GST portal instead of the portal prescribed for payments relating to Central Excise and Service Tax proceedings.
The petitioner contended that the payment was made through the wrong portal because of ambiguity concerning the applicable procedure. Although the prescribed amount had been deposited, the Commissioner (Appeals) refused to hear the statutory appeal on merits solely because the payment was not made in the prescribed manner.
The petitioner consequently sought quashing of the order-in-appeal dated March 16, 2023. A direction was also sought requiring the appellate authority to recognise the amount paid through the GST portal as a valid pre-deposit and decide the appeal on merits.
Appearing for the tax department, counsel submitted that the circulars and instructions issued by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs require the mandatory pre-deposit to be made through the ICEGATE portal.
The payment allegedly made by the petitioner through another portal was, therefore, not in accordance with the prescribed procedure under the relevant CBIC circulars and notifications.
The department, however, informed the High Court that it had no objection to allowing the petitioners to make fresh pre-deposits through ICEGATE. It further stated that, if applications seeking restoration of the appeals were filed after making the prescribed payments, those requests would be considered sympathetically.
Regarding the amounts already deposited through the GST portal using Form DRC-03, the department stated that the petitioners could separately apply for refunds. Such applications would be considered in accordance with law.
The High Court took on record the department’s written instructions, which were digitally signed on August 27, 2026.
Taking note of the department’s position, the High Court disposed of the writ petitions while granting liberty to all the petitioners to apply for restoration of their respective appeals before the Commissioner (Appeals).
The relief was made subject to the condition that the petitioners deposit the prescribed pre-deposit amounts through the ICEGATE portal.
The Court directed that the pre-deposit and the applications for restoration must be completed within four weeks from the date of its order. If those requirements are fulfilled within the stipulated period, the Commissioner (Appeals) must decide the restoration applications within a further period of four weeks.
The High Court also protected the petitioners’ right to seek refunds of the amounts previously deposited through Form GST DRC-03.
It granted them liberty to submit appropriate refund applications before the competent authority. Any such application must be examined and decided independently in accordance with the applicable law.
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