During the hearing, however, Justice Quddhose realised that two other single-judge benches of the High Court had previously dealt with the same question, and had given contradictory views.
On November 16 last year, Justice Anita Sumanth had held in Pandidorai Sethupathi Raja v. The Superintendent of Central Tax that the Court had the power to condone such delay under extraordinary circumstances.
She went on to say that it was a settled position that when statutory revisional or appellate remedies set out a limitation period for filing of remedy, and the authorities under the statute cannot traverse beyond the prescribed period. However, a writ court’s jurisdiction under Article 226 was “wide” and empowered the Court to “do substantial justice, over and beyond the ken of a statutory authority.”
She thus allowed the petitions filed before the Court seeking quashing of GST registration, and said that there were genuine reasons for delay such as ill health, financial constraints, COVID-19 having affected business etc.
Source: Barandbench
