Delhi High Court Allows Vodafone Idea to Withdraw GST Petition, Directs to File Appeal

In a significant ruling, the Delhi High Court has allowed Vodafone Idea to withdraw its writ petition challenging a GST order passed by the Assistant Commissioner, Central GST, Delhi East Commissionerate, on 7th February, 2025. The GST Department, via this order, has rejected the company’s GST refund claim amounting to Rs 10,91,924.

The Court has directed Vodafone Idea to avail the statutory appellate remedy available under the GST law in this matter.

The matter is related to the tax payment under the wrong State Registration. The company had mistakenly filed for a transaction under its Delhi GST registration. Once it came to know about this error, it filed the same transaction under the Uttar Pradesh GST registration. Due to this, the company had to pay GST twice. Therefore, the company requested a refund of the incorrectly paid amount under GST registration by filing a refund application.

The GST department rejected the claim on procedural grounds because it was limited under section 54 of the CGST Act, and the company did not revise the GSTR-1 return within the stipulated time.

Vodafone Idea approached the Delhi High Court through a writ petition challenging the refund rejection, where it argued that the tax was paid two times for the same transaction, and the rejection based on procedural grounds was not justified.

Before the Division Bench with Justice Nitin Wasudeo Sambre and Justice Ajay Digpaul, Vodafone Idea asked for permission to withdraw the writ petition, saying that an effective statutory appellate remedy was available under the GST law.

The Delhi High Court noted that the company can file an appeal against the refund rejection order. Therefore, the court said that it will not examine the merits of the case at the writ stage. Also, the time spent by Vodafone Idea in filing the writ petition will not be counted toward the limitation period for filing the statutory appeal.