FILING OF APPEAL BEFORE GOODS AND SERVICES TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL – PART I

[DR.MARIAPPAN GOVINDARAJAN]

Chapter XVIII of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (‘Act’ for short) provides for the procedure of filing appeal before the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (‘Appellate Tribunal’ for reference) under sections 109 to 116.  Rule 110 to 113A of Central Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017 provide the detailed procedure, supplement to the provisions of the Act, in filing appeal before the Appellate Tribunal.  Despite GST came into effect from 01.07.2017 the Appellate Tribunal has not made functional. 

Appeal to Appellate Tribunal

The Appellate Tribunal framed rules called as ‘Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (Procedure) Rules, 2025 as published in Notification No. GSR 256 (E), dated 24.04.2025 which came into effect from 24.04.2025.  These rules will deal with the procedure to be followed by the Appellate Tribunal in dealing with the appeals before it.

Rule 2(1)(a) defines the term ‘Act’ as the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 or the State Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017 of the concerned State or the Union territory Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.  But it does not include the Integrated Goods and Services Tax. 

Section 107 of the Act provides for filing appeal before the Appellate Authority by any person being aggrieved by any decision or order passed under Act or under the State GST Act or under Union territory Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 by an Adjudicating Authority.   Section 2(4) of the Act defines the expression ‘Adjudicating Authority’ as any authority appointed or authorised to pass any order or decision under the Act. 

Section 108 of the Act provides the powers of Revisional Authority.  The Revisional Authority may, on his own motion, or upon information received by him or on request from the Commissioner of State tax, or the Commissioner of Union territory tax, call for and examine the record of any proceedings, and if he considers that any decision or order passed under this Act or under the State Goods and Services Tax Act or the Union territory Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 by any officer subordinate to him is erroneous in so far as it is prejudicial to the interest of revenue and is illegal or improper or has not taken into account certain material facts, whether available at the time of issuance of the said order or not or in consequence of an observation by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, he may, if necessary, stay the operation of such decision or order for such period as he deems fit and after giving the person concerned an opportunity of being heard and after making such further inquiry as may be necessary, pass such order, as he thinks just and proper, including enhancing or modifying or annulling the said decision or order.

Section 112 of the Act provides that any person aggrieved by an order passed against him under section 107 or section 108 of this Act or the State Goods and Services Tax Act or the Union Territory Goods and Services Tax Act may appeal to the Appellate Tribunal against such order may file appeal before the Appellate Tribunal.

Constitution of the Appellate Tribunal

Section 107 of the Act (as amended) provides that the Central Government shall, on the recommendations of the Council, by notification, establish with effect from such date as may be specified therein, an Appellate Tribunal known as the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal for hearing appeals against the orders passed by the Appellate Authority or the Revisional Authority or for conducting an examination or adjudicating the cases referred to in sub-section (2) of section 171, if so notified under the said section.

Benches of the Appellate Tribunals

The Government shall, by notification, constitute a Principal Bench of the Appellate Tribunal at New Delhi which shall consist of-

• the President;
• a Judicial Member;
• a Technical Member (Centre); and
• a Technical Member (State).

On the request of the State, the Government may, by notification, constitute such number of State Benches at such places and with such jurisdiction as may be recommended by the Council, which shall consist of two Judicial Members, a Technical Member (Centre) and a Technical Member (State).

Principal Bench

The Central Government constituted the Principal Bench, on the recommendations of the GST Council constituted the Principal Bench at Delhi vide Notification No. S.O.1(E), dated 29.12.2023.

State Benches

The Central Government, vide Notification No. S.O. 4073(E), dated 14.09.2023 constituted the State Benches having jurisdiction as shown in the following table-

TABLE

Sl.No.	State Name	No. of Benches	Location
1	Andhra Pradesh	1	Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada
2	Bihar	1	Patna
3	Chhattisgarh	1	Raipur and Bilaspur
4	Delhi	1	Delhi
5	Gujarat	2	Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot
6	Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu
7	Haryana	1	Gurugram and Hissar
8	Himachal Pradesh	1	Shimla
9	Jammu and Kashmir	1	Jammu and Srinagar
10	Ladakh
11	Jharkhand	1	Ranchi
12	Karnataka	2	Bengaluru
13	Kerala	1	Ernakulam and Trivndrum
14	Lakshadweep
15	Madhya Pradesh	1	Bhopal
16	Goa	3	Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Nagpur, Aurangabad and Panaji
17	Maharashtra
18	Odisha	1	Cuttack
19	Punjab	1	Chandigarh and Jalandar
20	Chandigarh
21	Rajasthan	2	Jaipur and Jhodpur
22	Tamil Nadu	2	Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore and Puducherry
23	Puducherry
24	Telangana	1	Hyderabad
25	Uttar Pradesh	3	Lucknow, Varanasi, Ghaziabad, Agra and Pragyaraj
26	Uttarakhand	1	Dehradun
27	Andaman Nicobar Islands	2	Kolkata
28	Sikkim
29	West Bengal
30	Arunachal Pradesh	1	Guwahati Aiswal – Circuit Agartala – Circuit Kohima – Circuit.
31	Assam
32	Manipur
33	Meghalaya
34	Mizoram
35	Nagaland
36	Tripura

President and Members of Appellate Tribunal

Qualifications

The qualifications of President and members are prescribed in section 110 of the Act. 

• The President shall be a Supreme Court Judge or Chief Judge of a High Court;
• A Judicial member shall be a judge of the High Court or ten years combined services as District Judge or Additional District Judge or an Advocate having 10 years of service experience in tax matters before Tribunals, High Court or Supreme Court;
• A Technical Member (Centre) shall be a member of the Indian Revenue (Customs and Indirect Taxes) Service, Group A, or of the All-India Service with at least three years of experience in the administration of an existing law or goods and services tax in the Central Government, and has completed at least twenty-five years of service in Group A;
• A Technical Member (State), shall be  an officer of the State Government or an officer of All India Service, not below the rank of Additional Commissioner of Value Added Tax or the State goods and services tax or such rank, not lower than that of the First Appellate Authority, as may be notified by the concerned State Government, on the recommendations of the Council and has completed 25 years of service in Group A, or equivalent, with at least 3 years of experience in the administration of an existing law or the goods and services tax or in the field of finance and taxation in the State Government.

Tenue

The President or the Member shall be of more than 50 years old.  The tenure of the President shall be 4 years subject to the maximum age of 70 years. The President shall be eligible for re-appointment for a period not exceeding 2 years subject to the age-limit specified above.

The tenure of the member shall be 4 years subject to the maximum age of 67 years.  The Member shall be eligible for re-appointment for a period not exceeding 2 years subject to the age-limit specified above.

Appointment

The President or the Members shall be appointed or re-appointed on the recommendations of a Search-cum-Selection Committee constituted.  No appointment or re-appointment of the Members of the Appellate Tribunal shall be invalid merely by reason of any vacancy or defect in the constitution of the Search-cum-Selection Committee.

Salary

The salary of the President and the Members of the Appellate Tribunal shall be such as may be prescribed and their allowances and other terms and conditions of service shall be the same as applicable to Central Government officers carrying the same pay.  Neither the salary and allowances nor other terms and conditions of service of the President of Members of the Appellate Tribunal shall be varied to their disadvantage after their appointment:

Resignation

The President or any Member may, by notice in writing under his hand addressed to the Government, resign from his office.  The President or Member shall continue to hold office until the expiry of 3 months from the date of receipt of such notice by the Government or until a person duly appointed as his successor enters upon his office or until the expiry of his term of office, whichever is the earliest.

Removal

The Government may, on the recommendations of the Search-cum-Selection Committee, remove from the office President or a Member, who-

• has been adjudged an insolvent; or
• has been convicted of an offence which involves moral turpitude; or
• has become physically or mentally incapable of acting as such President or Member; or
• has acquired such financial or other interest as is likely to affect prejudicially his functions as such President or Member; or
• has so abused his position as to render his continuance in office prejudicial to the public interest.

The President or the Member shall not be removed on any of the grounds specified in clauses (d) and (e), unless he has been informed of the charges against him and has been given an opportunity of being heard.

Suspension

The Government, on the recommendations of the Search-cum-Selection Committee, may suspend from office, the President or a Judicial or Technical Member.