Order Date – 01 May 2023

Parties: M/s. Rimjhim Ispat Limited Vs The State of Jharkhand, The Commissioner of State Taxes, The Deputy Commissioner of State Taxes, Intelligence Bureau, Dhanbad Division, The State Taxes Officer, Intelligence Bureau, Intelligence Bureau, Dhanbad Division, Jharkhand and Goods & Services Tax Network 

Facts – 

• The Petitioner, M/s. Rimjhim Ispat Limited, was generated and issued E-way bill which was valid from 04.02.2021 till 10.02.2021.
• The consignment was inspected by the officers and the E-way bill was found to have expired on 10.02.2021. An order of detention in Form GST MOV-06 and a notice in Form GST MOV-07 were issued wherein the petitioner company was directed to show cause as to why the proposed tax and penalty to the tune of Rs. 19,61,100/- be not imposed.
• The demand was confirmed. Being aggrieved the petitioner filed an appeal manually and he was subsequently communicated by the appellate authority to file an online appeal.

Issue – 

• Whether appeals are required to be filed online?

Order – 

• The Divisional Bench of Hon’ble High Court observed that since the petitioner has an alternative remedy of an appeal which he has already availed of in terms of Section 107 of the JGST Act by filing the same manually which is being kept dormant by the Department, it disposed of the writ application with a direction to the Joint Commissioner (Appeals), Dhanbad Division, Dhanbad to dispose of the appeal preferred by the petitioner manually expeditiously and preferably within a period of eight weeks.
• Further the memo of appeal submitted manually contains all the grounds on which he has assailed the impugned order dated 19.02.2021