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Assistant Commissioner (CT) LTU Kakinada & Ors. v. M/s Glaxo Smith Kline Consumer Health Care Limited

Civil Appeal · 2020 INSC 390Decided 6 May 2020
Civil Appeal No. 2413 of 2020
Justice A.M. Khanwilkar · Justice Dinesh Maheshwari

Background

A company's tax assessment order demanding about Rs. 77 lakh went unchallenged within the statutory appeal window because the employee handling tax matters allegedly failed to inform the company and was later suspended for unrelated misconduct. By the time the company filed a statutory appeal, it was far beyond even the extended 60-day maximum period the law allows for condoning delay, so the appellate authority rejected it as time-barred. The company then persuaded the Telangana High Court to quash the assessment order anyway, through a writ petition under Article 226.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that where a tax statute itself fixes an outer limit (here, 60 days) beyond which delay in filing a statutory appeal simply cannot be condoned, a High Court cannot use its writ jurisdiction under Article 226 to sidestep that limit and grant relief on equitable grounds, doing so would defeat the legislature's clear policy choice, embodied in provisions akin to Section 3 of the Limitation Act. It found the company's explanation for the delay unconvincing and unsubstantiated (no affidavit from the employee actually blamed), and noted even the Supreme Court's own wide powers under Article 142 could not override such a statutory limitation. The High Court's order was set aside and the writ petition itself dismissed.

Lesson Learnt

When a law sets a hard outer limit for appealing a tax (or similar) order, missing that window, even for a sympathetic reason like an errant employee's negligence, generally cannot be cured by filing a writ petition instead; courts treat statutory limitation periods for specialised remedies as binding, not as mere suggestions.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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