Section 46 of the CGST Act, 2017— Demand – Non Filing of GSTR 3B returns –– The petitioner could not file GSTR-3B for the period from March 2020 to December 2020 and therefore, could not pay the applicable tax liability. The respondent issued SCN dated 15.11.2021 under Section 46 for non-filing of returns GSTR-3B and not meeting the tax liability, which was decided vide order dated 13.12.2021 ex parte. The petitioner preferred an appeal which was rejected. The counsel for the petitioner submitted that returns could not be filed for the aforementioned ten months period owing to COVID 19 situation. The court observed that the Appellate Authority should have gone into the reasons adduced by the writ petitioner regarding the belated filing of returns and should have returned a finding one way or the other. However, the Appellate Authority also is an authority which can go into facts as rightly pointed out by the learned Revenue counsel.

Held that:- The Hon’ble High Court set aside the impugned orders and remitted the matter back to Appellate Authority with a further directive to examine the matter on merits based on available records, within a period of three weeks i.e., on or before 27.12.2022.