S.5 Limitation Act Applies To Rectification Of Orders U/S 31 Of UP VAT Act: Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court has held that Section 5 of the Limitation Act will apply to rectification of orders passed by officer, authority, Tribunal or the High Court under Section 31 of the Uttar Pradesh Value Added Tax Act, 2008.

Section 31 of the Uttar Pradesh Value Added Tax Act, 2008 provides that any officer, authority, Tribunal or the High Court may rectify any mistake apparent on the face of record in any of its order either on its own motion or on an application made by parties, within a period of three years from the date of the order which is sought to be rectified.

Petitioner approached the High Court against the order of the Commercial tax tribunal refusing to rectify its order on grounds of limitation. Counsel for petitioner sumitted that though the original order was passed on 18^th March 2017, petitioner came to know about it upon attachment of its bank account on 14^th September 2021.

It was argued that the amount mentioned in the order of the Tribunal was sought to be rectified. Since higher amount had been transcribed in the order than what was due, it was argued that the petitioner must not be penalized for no fault of his. It was argued that application of Section 5 of the Limitation Act on Section 31 of the UP VAT Act was neither implicitly nor expressly barred as no further extension clause was provided in the Section 31(1).

Counsel for petitioner argued that “in statutory provision of taxation statutes when there is no provision for extension of time period for showing sufficient cause, Section 5 of the Limitation Act would apply. The application of Section 5 of the Limitation Act would not be barred in such a case wherein no time period is given for extension.”

The Court relied on the extension of limitation period granted till 28^th February, 2022 by the Supreme Court during COVID in Misc. Application No.21 of 2022 filed in Suo Motu Writ Petition (C) No.3 of 2020 (In Re: Cognizance for Extension of Limitation) to hold that there was only 11 days delay in filing the rectification application.

“Without going into hyper technicality with regard to period of limitation, this Court keeping in mind the Supreme Court judgment for extension of period of limitation and the fact that Section 5 of the Limitation Act would apply to Section 31 of the VAT Act is of the view that the delay in filing the rectification application should be condoned,” held Justice Shekhar B. Saraf while condoning the delay and directing the Commercial Tax Tribunal to deal with the rectification application on merits.

Case Title: M/S Sanyo Koreatex Pvt. Ltd. vs. Deputy Commissioner Trade Tax And Another 2024 LiveLaw (AB) 134 [WRIT TAX No. - 1147 of 2022]

Case citation: 2024 LiveLaw (AB) 134

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