Relevant Sections: 107 of the CGST Act, 2017.
Under the GST law, an appeal under section 107 has to be filed within 3 months from the date of communication of such order. It is to be noted that the time limit starts from the date of communication of the order to the person and not from the date of the order.
Due date – 3 months from the date of communication of the order.
Relevant Section of the Act:
“Section 107 . Appeals to Appellate Authority.— (1) Any person aggrieved by any decision or order passed under this Act or the State Goods and Services Tax Act or the Union Territory Goods and Services Tax Act by an adjudicating authority may appeal to such Appellate Authority as may be prescribed within three months from the date on which the said decision or order is communicated to such person.”
Question: Whether 3 months is calendar months or 90 days?
It is to be noted that the term “ month” has not been defined under the GST Act. In such situations, we take recourse to meaning of “month” under the General Clauses Act, 1897.
As per Section 3(35) of the General clauses Act 1897, month is defined as “shall mean a month reckoned according to the British calendar.
In Kathayee Cotton Mills v. Gopala Pillai [1979] KLT 721, the Division Bench of the Kerala High Court has observed thus (headnote) :
“In interpreting a statutory provision we have to look into the plain meaning of the language used therein, and if it does not give room for any ambiguity that meaning has to be given to it in the absence of any contrary or different intention indicated expressly or at least by implication. In this case, the term ‘month‘ has not been defined in the definition section, namely, section 2 of the Act. In common parlance a month is understood to mean a period of 30 days. Under section 3(35) of the General Clauses Act, 1937, the number of days in a month has to be reckoned according to the British calendar under which some months have 31 days while others have either 30 days, and one month having 28 or 29 days. In the absence of a definition giving a different meaning there is no justification for departing from the meaning given to the term in common parlance.”
The relevant portion in Bhikhalal v. Noormamad Abdul Karim, is as follows :
“In common parlance, the term ‘month‘ is hardly understood as a calendar month according to the Gregorian calendar, but it by and large means ‘the space of time’ from a day in one month to the corresponding day in the next. This is the meaning of the term ‘month‘ given in the Concise Oxford Dictionary, 1964 Edition. The term ‘month‘ has been explained also in the Bombay General Clauses Act, 1904. The term ‘month‘ as defined in section 2(30) of the Bombay General Clauses Act, means ‘a month reckoned according to the British calendar’. The term ‘reckoned’ is equivalent to the term ‘calculated’ or ‘counted’. If the Legislature wanted a month to mean only a compact unit of a calendar month, the normal definition would have been as a British calendar month or a calendar month. The elaborate explanation given in the definition of the term ‘month‘ and particularly the reference to calculation clearly and pointedly suggest that what is intended to be referred to by the term is space of time between the two dates of the two contiguous months.”
Therefore, the term “one month” as contained in section 142 of the Negotiable Instruments Act would be a calendar month and as per section 3(35) of the General Clauses Act, 1897, the number of days in a month reckoned according to the British calendar under which some months have 31 days and other have 30 days, while one month has 28, in the leap year 29 days.”
In the light of the above case laws, it can be construed that for the purpose of filing appeal under section 107, month means a calendar month. It does not mean 30 days per month. Hence, the appeal can be filed within 3 months of the date of communication of the order to the person, which is equivalent to 3 calendar months and not 90 days.