Section 54 of the CGST Act, 2017 – Refund — The petitioner prayed for quashing the impugned order-In-Appeal dated 11.02.2020 / 14.02.2020 and sanction the refund with interest. The counsel for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner has submitted an application dated 03.04.2019 for refund under Section 54, which was rejected vide order dated 21.08.2019. The petitioner preferred an appeal, which was also dismissed vide order dated 11.02.2020. The petitioner counsel submitted that the ITC in relation to the goods that were lying in stock, which were not cleared as on 31.07.2018 would not lapse and that the petitioner would be entitled to refund of the same in view of the notification dated 26.07.2018 and Circular dated 24.08.2018.  The court observed that the respondent has declined to follow the judgment of the High Court of Gujarath in Shabnam Petrofil’s case without assigning any cogent or valid reasons. The petitioner has produced all relevant documents along with the claim for refund for the purpose of establishing that the stock was available with the petitioner and the same was not cleared as on 31.07.2018.

Held that:- The Hon’ble High Court set aside the impugned orders and remitted the matter back to respondent adjudicating authority for reconsideration of the claim for refund put forth by the petitioner bearing in mind the pleadings, documents, judgments, etc., relied upon by the petitioner and the observations made in this order and in accordance with law, within a period of three months.