The Allahabad High Court has held that while Section 5 of the Limitation Act (condonation of delay) is impliedly excluded from GST proceedings by the self-contained scheme of Section 107, Section 14 (exclusion of time spent in proceedings before a wrong forum in good faith) continues to apply. The ruling by Justice Ajay Bhanot in M/s Anandeshwar Steels v. Additional Commissioner (Appeals) CGST (Writ Tax No. 2361/2024, decided 12.03.2026) provides a lifeline to taxpayers who filed appeals before the wrong authority during the early years of GST implementation.
The petitioner had filed an appeal against a Section 129 order before the Commissioner CGST Kanpur on 04.11.2020. For three and a half years, no information was forthcoming about the appeal. When the petitioner enquired, the Commissioner informed him that the appeal had been filed before the wrong forum and there was no mechanism to transfer it. The petitioner then filed a fresh appeal before the correct authority on 22.04.2024, which was rejected as time-barred. The court applied its own recent ruling in Prakash Medical Stores (2026), which had drawn the analytical distinction: the Supreme Court in Hongo India and Glaxo SmithKline excluded only Section 5, not Section 14. Section 14 is a "beneficial piece of legislation" furthering justice where a person pursues a case with due diligence but makes a mistake about the correct forum.
2026-juristway.com-1171-HC(Allahabad)-GST | High Court of Allahabad | Writ Tax No. 2361 of 2024 | 12.03.2026