The Telangana High Court has set aside an appellate order that treated a Goods and Services Tax (GST) appeal as withdrawn despite the appellant having subsequently sought cancellation of the withdrawal request.
The bench of Chief Justice and Justice G.M. Mohiuddin directed that the appeal be restored and heard on merits, emphasizing that procedural lapses should not deprive a litigant of the opportunity to pursue statutory remedies.
The dispute arose from a GST assessment order passed under Section 73 of the Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, relating to the financial year 2018-19. Aggrieved by the assessment order dated April 27, 2024, the taxpayer had filed an appeal under Section 107(1) of the GST Act before the appellate authority.
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However, during the pendency of the appeal, an application seeking withdrawal of the appeal was submitted on December 30, 2025. According to the taxpayer, this withdrawal request had been filed inadvertently and without proper instructions. Realizing the mistake, the appellant submitted another application on the very next day, December 31, 2025, seeking rejection of the withdrawal request and effectively requesting continuation of the appeal proceedings.
Despite the subsequent communication, the appellate authority proceeded to dispose of the appeal as withdrawn through an order dated April 7, 2026. This prompted the taxpayer to approach the High Court challenging the appellate authority’s decision.
The petitioner submitted that the withdrawal application had been filed without instructions and that the error had been immediately corrected through a subsequent application filed the next day. It was argued that the appellate authority failed to consider this later communication before passing the order treating the appeal as withdrawn. The petitioner therefore sought restoration of the appeal and a hearing on merits.
Notably, the State’s counsel did not object to the request for restoration of the appeal.
The High Court found merit in the taxpayer’s grievance. The Bench observed that while the withdrawal application was submitted on December 30, 2025, a subsequent application seeking withdrawal of that request was filed on December 31, 2025. Despite this, the appellate authority ignored the latter application and, after nearly four months, disposed of the appeal as withdrawn.
The Court held that the circumstances clearly indicated that the appeal should not have been dismissed as withdrawn without considering the taxpayer’s subsequent request. The Bench concluded that the interests of justice required restoration of the appeal so that the matter could be adjudicated on its merits.
Setting aside the appellate authority’s order dated April 7, 2026, the High Court directed that the GST appeal be restored and heard afresh on merits by the appellate authority. The writ petition was accordingly disposed of, with no order as to costs.
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