GSTAT Chief Concerned Over Low Number Of Cases Filed in Appellate Tribunal
President of Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT) Justice (Retd) Sanjaya Kumar Mishra on Friday expressed concern over the low number of cases filed with the appellate tribunal.
New Delhi: President of the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT), Justice (Retd) Sanjaya Kumar Mishra, on Friday expressed concern over the low number of cases filed with the appellate tribunal, noting that only 74,758 cases have been recorded so far.
The GSTAT e-filing portal was made operational on September 24, 2025, and the deadline for filing appeals, which were time-barred, was July 31, 2026. “As many as 3.5 lakh cases were filed before the first appellate authority, and this is indicative of the number of second appeals that could be filed before the GSTAT,” Mishra said while speaking in an event here.
However, since the cases were filed in physical mode, there is no conclusive data available on the number of cases disposed of by the first appellate authority. The first appellate authority is a commissioner (appeals) level officer whom a taxpayer can approach to appeal against an order or decision issued by a junior officer.
The GSTAT is the second appellate authority and provides a unified platform for resolving conflicts between taxpayers and tax authorities. “Around 74,758 cases have been filed before the GSTAT since September last year, while about 30,000 more tokens have been issued, which is contrary to the initial expectation of a rush in filing of cases,” Mishra said.
Last month, the GSTAT had allowed businesses whose cases were getting time-barred on July 31 to generate tokens on the e-filing portal. Once the token was generated, businesses had 60 days to file the case before the appellate tribunal. “When I saw the number of cases that have been filed (before the GSTAT) and the number of tokens generated, I was a bit disheartened,” he said.
“I was expecting something around 2-2.5 lakh cases. I don't know why the number of cases filed is less. It may be that businesses have closed down; maybe they were cases of fake ITC claims,” he said.