In United Projectsv. The State of Maharashtra, the Court held that under the Maharashtra Tax Laws ( Levy, Amendment and Validation) Act 2017 read with Maharashtra Tax Laws (Levy, Amendment and Validation) Act 2019, which mandates that appeals against an order of assessment under Section 26(6B)(c) Maharashtra Value Added Tax Act, 2002 (‘the Act’) filed on or after April 15, 2017 require the deposit of 10 per cent of the impugned assessment order amount as a condition precedent for filing an appeal, the date of which the appeal is filed and not the date of the impugned assessment order, is to be considered for the cut-off date of April 15, 2017. Moreover, the Court held that the right to appeal under the Act was only a statutory right, and the State Legislature had complete competence in creating conditions for the filing of an appeal. In the present case, the petitioners argued that the relevant date for judging the applicability of Section 26(6B)(c) was the date on which the impugned assessment order was made and since, here, the assessment order had been made before April 15, 2017 there was no requirement to deposit 10 per cent of the impugned assessment order amount for filing an appeal. However, the Court negated this contention by laying down that the relevant date is the one on which the appeal is filed and not the date on which the assessment order was issued. Thus, the Court rejected the contention of the petitioner that Section 26(6B)(c) did not apply to the present case.
Source: Barandbench
