Officers are obligated to follow the orders of their superiors. The lawful Order of the superiors must be followed, disobedience of which could lead to suspension or inquiry against the officers. The High Court Of Bombay upheld this through the learned bench held by R. D. DHANUKA AND S. M. MODAK, JJ in the case of M/S. GLOBUS PETRO ADDITIONS PVT. LTD. V. THE UNION OF INDIA AND ORS ( Civil Writ Petition No. 3298 Of 2021).
On February 2, 2019, the Petitioner applied to Respondent No. 3 for a GST refund. On 02/05/2019, the reimbursement application for Q2 was denied. The reimbursement application for Q3 was refused on May 1, 2019. The Petitioner filed an appeal with Respondent No. 2- Additional Commissioner on 02/08/2019, after being aggrieved by the Order denying those two petitions. Respondent No. 2 was happy to set aside Respondent No. 3’s instructions and approve the appeal on October 14, 2019. The Petitioner submitted the reimbursement claim before Respondent No. 3. The reimbursement claim for Q2 and Q3 was denied by Respondent No. 3 on November 14, 2019. The Petitioner filed an appeal against the Order mentioned above dated 14/11/2019 before the Additional Commissioner, Pune, on March 12, 2020.
It is also held that, after further investigation into the matter, the condition (b) of paragraph 3 of Circular No. 110/29/2019-GST dated 03/10/2019 that of refund application for a subsequent period did not appear to be fulfilled in respect of refund claim filed under the ‘Any Other’ category instead of the type under which Nil refund claim was filed. The applicant could not register a refund claim under the ‘Any Other’ category for July and September 2018 since they had already filed a refund claim for October and December 2018.
It is further held that the said Order in Appeal dated 14/10/2019 of the Commissioner (Appeals-II), Central Tax, Pune-II, being deemed erroneous, is to be appealed against before the GST Tribunal. As soon as it is formed, request to set aside the said Order in Appeal dated 14/10/2019 as being not legal and proper. To stay the operation of the said Order in Appeal dated 14/10/2019 and pass any other order deemed fit in the facts and circumstances.
Mr. Jitendra Mishra, experienced counsel for the Respondents, made a feeble attempt to defend the impugned Order by claiming that the department has decided to appeal the said Order by the Commissioner (Appeals-II) dated 14/10/2019 before the GST Tribunal, which has yet to be established.
The Learned Judge passed the petition based on the decision to challenge the said Order dated 14/10/2019 before the GST Tribunal, or based on the Assistant Commissioner’s dissent not to obey the said Order given by his Superior Authority, i.e., the Commissioner.
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Reviewed by Rangasree.
