Prayagraj (UP), Jul 1 (PTI) The Allahabad High Court has dismissed a bunch of petitions challenging central and state government orders extending the time limits for filing the GST return for the financial year 2017-18 and its scrutiny and audit by the tax officials.

The time limit for filing GST returns was extended in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic.

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A bench comprising justices SD Singh and Donadi Ramesh, which passed the order on a slew of petitions by M/s Graziano Transmission and others, held that the government has the power to extend time limitation.

"The power to issue the impugned notifications existed. It is undisputed.

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"In view of our discussion, that power was exercised both within the confines of the legislative conditions and occasioned by circumstances confronted by the legislature," the court said.

It said that no excessive extension of time is seen to have been granted.

"The extent to which the power may have been exercised i.e. the length of time extension granted would also remain outside the scope of judicial review. Suffice to note, no excessive extension of time is seen to have been granted," the bench said.

The court in its order dated May 31 said that as per material on record, the time limit was extended due to COVID-19 and there was application of mind in extending the time limit for filing GST returns and their scrutiny by tax officials.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)