Section 107 Appeal Limitation Runs in Calendar Months, Not 120 Days: Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court quashed an order rejecting United India Insurance’s GST appeal as two days late, because the Appellate Authority had treated four months as a fixed period of 120 days.

The Bombay High Court has held that the time to file a first appeal under Section 107(1) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (CGST Act), and the further period that may be allowed under Section 107(4), are expressed in months and must be computed as calendar months, not as a fixed total of 120 days [United India Insurance Company Ltd. v. Union of India & Ors., 2026-juristway.com-3359-HC(Bombay)-GST].

Justice M.S. Karnik and Justice Sandesh D. Patil heard the insurer’s writ petition against an order dated 7 May 2026 of the Appellate Authority. The order under appeal had been communicated to the insurer on 11 Aug 2025, and the appeal was filed on 11 Dec 2025. The Appellate Authority rejected it as delayed by two days, counting the outer limit as 120 days from communication.

Section 107(1) allows an appeal within three months of the date on which the order is communicated. Section 107(4) lets the Appellate Authority admit an appeal within a further period of one month if the appellant was prevented by sufficient cause. The State opposed the petition and supported the rejection.

The Court held that the impugned order treated the statutory expression “months” in Section 107(1) as “days”, and calculated four months as a fixed aggregate of 120 days. It observed that Section 107(4) neither provides a further period of 30 days nor prescribes an aggregate of 120 days; both sub‑sections speak of months.

Accepting the insurer’s submission that a period expressed in days differs from one expressed in months, the Court held that the period under Sections 107(1) and 107(4) must be computed as calendar months and not by “mechanically treating” the combined period as “an inflexible period of 120 days”.

The Court therefore held that the appeal had been preferred within the period of limitation under Section 107. It quashed the order dated 7 May 2026 and directed the Appellate Authority to hear the appeal on merits and in accordance with law.

2026-juristway.com-3359-HC(Bombay)-GST