suo motu<\/em> cognizance of the difficulties that might be faced by litigants in filing petitions, applications, suits, appeals, and all other proceedings within the period of limitation prescribed by the general law or any special law (both central and state) and extended limitation period w.e.f 15.03.2020 till further orders.<\/p>\nFurther on 06.05.2020, the Hon’ble Supreme Court extended the limitation period for statutory provisions under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act & the Arbitration & Conciliation Act with effect from March 15, 2020 until further orders<\/p>\n
Further on 14.07.2020, the Hon’ble Supreme Court applied limitation extension to Section 29A and 23(4) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 and Section 12A of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015.<\/p>\n
Further on 08.03.2021, the Hon’ble Supreme Court recalled limitation extension w.e.f 15.03.2021and excluded period from 15.03.2020 till 14.03.2021 from limitation.<\/p>\n
Further on 27.04.2021, the Hon’ble Supreme Court revived limitation extension by restoring order dated 23.03.2020 and period from 14.03.2021 excluded from limitation until further orders.<\/p>\n
Further on 23.09.2021, the Hon’ble Supreme Court recalled limitation extension w.e.f 02.10.2021and period from 15.03.2020 till 02.10.2021 excluded from limitation.<\/p>\n
As India witnessed a sharp rise in the Covid-19 cases in January 2022, the Hon’ble Supreme Court decided to restore the limitation extension. As per the order of the Apex Court dated 10 January 2022, the period from 15th March 2020 to 28th February 2022 would stand excluded for the purpose of limitation.<\/p>\n
The extract of the <\/strong>Order of the Hon’ble Supreme Court while deciding a miscellaneous application filed by the SCAORA:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- The order dated 23.03.2020 is restored and in continuation of the subsequent orders dated 08.03.2021, 27.04.2021 and 23.09.2021, it is directed that the period from 15.03.2020 till 28.02.2022 shall stand excluded for the purposes of limitation as may be prescribed under any general or special laws in respect of all judicial or quasi-judicial proceedings.<\/li>\n
- Consequently, the balance period of limitation remaining as on 03.10.2021, if any, shall become available with effect from 01.03.2022.<\/li>\n
- In cases where the limitation would have expired during the period between 15.03.2020 till 28.02.2022, notwithstanding the actual balance period of limitation remaining, all persons shall have a limitation period of 90 days from 01.03.2022. In the event the actual balance period of limitation remaining, with effect from 01.03.2022 is greater than 90 days, the longer period shall apply.<\/li>\n
- It is further clarified that the period from 15.03.2020 till 28.02.2022 shall also stand excluded in computing the periods prescribed under Section 23(4) and 29A of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, Section 12A of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 and provisos (b) and (c) of Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 and any other laws, which prescribe period(s) of limitation for instituting proceedings, outer limits (within which the court or tribunal can condone delay) and termination of proceedings.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
The order dated 10 January 2022 is in recognition of the difficulties faced by the bar as well as the bench on account of the surge witnessed in Covid-19 cases.<\/p>\n
Applicability of Extension of limitation under GST Law<\/strong>
\nCBIC had issued Circular No. 157\/13\/2021-GST Dated the 20th July, 2021 for Clarification regarding extension of limitation under GST Law in terms of Hon’ble Supreme Court’s Order dated 27.04.2021 clarifying the issues detailed hereunder-<\/p>\n\n- The extension granted by Hon’ble Supreme Court order applies only to quasi-judicial and judicial matters relating to petitions\/ applications\/ suits\/ appeals\/ all other proceedings. All other proceedings should be understood in the nature of the earlier used expressions but can be quasi-judicial proceedings. Hon’ble Supreme Court has stepped into to grant extensions only with reference to judicial and quasi-judicial proceedings in the nature of appeals\/ suits\/ petitions etc. and has not extended it to every action or proceeding under the CGST Act.<\/li>\n
- For the purpose of counting the period(s) of limitation for filing of appeals before any appellate authority under the GST Law, the limitation stands extended till further orders as ordered by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in Suo Motu Writ Petition (Civil) 3 of 2020 vide order dated 27th April 2021. Thus, as on date, the Orders of the Hon’ble Supreme Court apply to appeals, reviews, revisions etc., and not to original adjudication.<\/li>\n
- Various Orders and extensions passed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court would apply only to acts and actions which are in nature of judicial, including quasi-judicial exercise of power and discretion. Even under this category, Hon’ble Supreme Court Order, applies only to a lis which needs to be pursued within a time frame fixed by the respective statutes.<\/li>\n
- Wherever proceedings are pending, judicial or quasi-judicial which requires to be heard and disposed off, cannot come to a standstill by virtue of these extension orders. Those cases need to be adjudicated or disposed off either physically or through the virtual mode based on the prevailing policies and practices besides instructions if any.<\/li>\n
- The following actions such as scrutiny of returns, issuance of summons, search, enquiry or investigations and even consequential arrest in accordance with GST law would not be covered by the judgment of the Hon’ble Supreme Court.<\/li>\n
- As regards issuance of show cause notice, granting time for replies and passing orders, the present Orders of the Hon’ble Supreme Court may not cover them even though they are quasi-judicial proceedings as the same has only been made applicable to matters relating to petitions\/applications\/suits, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
On the basis of the legal opinion, it was clarified that various actions\/compliances under GST can be broadly categorised as follows: –<\/p>\n
\n- Proceedings that need to be initiated or compliances that need to be done by the taxpayers:-These actions would continue to be governed only by the statutory mechanism and time limit provided\/ extensions granted under the statute itself. Various Orders of the Hon’ble Supreme Court would not apply to the said proceedings\/ compliances on part of the taxpayers.<\/li>\n
- Quasi-Judicial proceedings by tax authorities:- The tax authorities can continue to hear and dispose off proceedings where they are performing the functions as quasi-judicial authority. This may interalia include disposal of application for refund, application for revocation of cancellation of registration, adjudication proceedings of demand notices, etc. Similarly, appeals which are filed and are pending, can continue to be heard and disposed off and the same will be governed by those extensions of time granted by the statutes or notifications, if any.<\/li>\n
- Appeals by taxpayers\/ tax authorities against any quasi- judicial order:-Wherever any appeal is required to filed before Joint\/ Additional Commissioner (Appeals), Commissioner (Appeals), Appellate Authority for Advance Ruling, Tribunal and various courts against any quasi-judicial order or where a proceeding for revision or rectification of any order is required to be undertaken, the time line for the same would stand extended as per the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s order.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
In other words, the extension of timelines granted by Hon’ble Supreme Court vide its Order dated 27.04.2021 is applicable in respect of any appeal which is required to be filed before Joint\/ Additional Commissioner (Appeals), Commissioner (Appeals), Appellate Authority for Advance Ruling, Tribunal and various courts against any quasi-judicial order or where proceeding for revision or rectification of any order is required to be undertaken, and is not applicable to any other proceedings under GST Laws.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2022\/01\/supreme-court.jpg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.klickongstworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7266"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.klickongstworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.klickongstworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.klickongstworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.klickongstworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.klickongstworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.klickongstworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.klickongstworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.klickongstworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.klickongstworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}