Practice note · 2026-10-11 · By CA Arun Mehta
Inside the Tribunal: What the GSTAT (Procedure) Rules, 2025 Require
The Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (Procedure) Rules, 2025 were notified by G.S.R. 256(E) dated 24 April 2025 under section 111 of the CGST Act and came into force on publication. Rule 20 requires the appeal and every miscellaneous application to be typed in double spacing on A4, duly paged, indexed and tagged, with grounds numbered consecutively under distinct heads. Rule 21 requires a certified copy of the order appealed against and, where that order was passed in appeal or revision, of the original order as well. Rule 32 lets the Registrar require defects to be cured within a time not exceeding thirty days and reject the appeal if they are not. Rule 31 bars any ground outside the Form of appeal except by leave. Rule 29 routes every interlocutory application through GSTAT FORM-01 with a supporting affidavit, at a fee of Rs 5,000. Rule 103 requires the order to be pronounced not later than thirty days from the final hearing.
Part 3 of this series dealt with getting to the Tribunal — the periods, the two pre-deposits, and the traps in rules 108 and 110 of the CGST Rules. This part deals with what happens once you are there, under a body of rules most practitioners have not yet had occasion to read.
The Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (Procedure) Rules, 2025 were notified by G.S.R. 256(E) dated 24 April 2025, made by the Tribunal itself in exercise of the power conferred by section 111 of the CGST Act, and they came into force on the date of their publication. They run to a hundred and twenty-four rules, a Schedule of Fees and a set of GSTAT Forms, and they govern everything from the paper your appeal is typed on to the day the order must be pronounced.
Two of them decide whether your appeal survives, and they are the place to start.
The form of what you file, and why it is not a formality
Rule 20 is the one that catches people, because it reads like typesetting and operates like a condition.
(1) Every Form of appeal shall set forth concisely and under distinct heads, the grounds of appeal and such grounds shall be numbered consecutively and shall be typed in double space of the paper. (2) Every Form of appeal, cross-objections, reference applications, stay applications or any other miscellaneous applications shall also be typed neatly in double spacing on the A4 size paper and the same shall be duly paged, indexed and tagged firmly with Form of appeal in a separate folder.
Note the reach of sub-rule (2). It is not confined to the appeal. It governs cross-objections, stay applications and any other miscellaneous application — which means an application for condonation of delay, or for leave to urge additional grounds, is subject to the same requirements. Double spacing, A4, paged, indexed.
Sub-rule (3) adds that every Form of appeal, application or cross-objection must be signed and verified, and that the party or the authorised representative must certify as true copy the documents produced.
Rule 21 requires a certified copy of the order appealed against, and where that order was itself passed in appeal or revision, a certified copy of the appellate or revisional order together with the order of the original authority, along with all relevant documents including those relied upon. One certified copy is not enough where the matter has been through a first appeal.
Rule 18 requires the appeal to be filed online on the GSTAT Portal, with the cause title stating "In the Goods and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal", divided into consecutively numbered paragraphs, each containing as nearly as may be a separate fact or allegation.
A defect notice is a limitation problem
This is the join between the CGST Rules and the Tribunal's own rules, and it is where an appeal can be lost without anyone doing anything wrong on the merits.
Rule 110 of the CGST Rules provides that an appeal to the Tribunal "shall be treated as filed only when the final acknowledgement, indicating the appeal number, is issued", and that the final acknowledgement in Part B of FORM GST APL-02A issues on removal of defects, if any.
Rule 32 of the Tribunal's rules then sets the clock for curing them:
(1) The Registrar may, in its discretion, on sufficient cause being shown, accept a Form of Appeal which is not accompanied by the documents referred to in rule 21 or is in any other way defective, and in such cases may require the appellant to file such documents or as the case may be, make necessary amendments within such time as it may allow, which may in any case not exceed thirty days. (2) The Registrar may reject the Form of Appeal, if the documents referred to therein are not produced, or the amendments are not made, within the time-limit allowed.
So the Registrar's indulgence is capped at thirty days, and the consequence of missing it is rejection, not an adjournment. Treat a defect notice as a limitation event and diarise it that way.
Grounds: rule 31, and what it actually permits
Rule 31 is short and is read too narrowly.
The appellant shall not, except by leave of the Appellate Tribunal, urge or be heard in support of any grounds not set forth in the Form of appeal, but the Appellate Tribunal, in deciding the appeal, shall not be confined to the grounds set forth in the Form of appeal or those taken by leave of the Appellate Tribunal under these rules: Provided that the Appellate Tribunal shall not rest its decision on any other grounds unless the party who may be affected thereby has had a sufficient opportunity of being heard on that ground.
Three things follow. A ground outside the memorandum needs leave, so it is an application and not a submission. The Tribunal is not confined to the pleaded grounds, and may decide on a ground nobody raised. And if it means to do that, it must first hear the party who would be affected — which is as much a protection for the Revenue as for the appellant.
An application for leave under rule 31 is an interlocutory application, which takes us to the next rule.
Interlocutory applications: one form, one affidavit, one fee
Rule 29 gathers almost everything a party will ever need to ask for into a single procedure:
Every interlocutory application for stay, direction, rectification in order, condonation of delay, early hearing, exemption from production of copy of order appealed against or extension of time prayed for in pending matters shall include all the information as per the prescribed GSTAT FORM-01 and the requirements prescribed in that behalf shall be complied with by the applicant, besides filing an affidavit supporting the application.
So a stay application, a condonation application and an application for leave to urge additional grounds all go the same way: GSTAT FORM-01, with a supporting affidavit, and — under the Schedule of Fees — a fee of Rs 5,000. The affidavit is not optional, and it is the step most often missed.
The periods inside the Tribunal
| What | Period | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Computing any period | the first day is excluded; if the last day falls when the office is closed, that day and any succeeding closed days are excluded too | r.3 |
| Respondent's reply | one month of receipt | r.36(1) |
| Rejoinder | one month, or as the Bench specifies | r.37 |
| Curing defects | as the Registrar allows, not exceeding thirty days | r.32(1) |
| Pronouncement of the order | at once, or as soon as practicable but not later than thirty days from the final hearing, excluding vacations and holidays | r.103(1) |
| Application to rectify the Tribunal's order | one month from the final order, online, in GSTAT FORM-01 | r.108(2) |
| Tribunal's general power to amend a defect or error | within thirty days of completion of pleadings | r.109 |
| Urgent listing | filed before 12:00 noon to be listed the next working day, if complete; after noon but before 3:00 p.m. only with specific permission | r.12 |
Two of those are worth lifting out.
Rule 107 is unusually generous. Where a period is fixed by the rules or granted by the Tribunal, the Tribunal may enlarge it "in the interest of justice and for reasons to be recorded, even though the period fixed by or under these rules or granted by the Appellate Tribunal may have expired". Rule 14 says the same of time appointed by the rules or by any order, and adds that an extension may be ordered although the application was not made until after the time had run. That is a different world from section 107(4) of the Act, where one month is the end of it — but it governs the Tribunal's own procedural periods, not the statutory period for filing the appeal.
Rectification before the Tribunal is narrower than under the Act. Section 161 of the CGST Act, discussed in Part 4, gives the affected person three months to ask and the authority six months to act. Rule 108 gives a party one month from the final order to apply in GSTAT FORM-01 — although a clerical mistake or an error arising from an accidental slip or omission may be corrected by the Tribunal on its own motion at any time.
Rule 123, and the orders made under it
Rule 123 lets the President remove difficulties and issue directions, and it has already been used in a way that affected filings.
An Order of the President dated 24 September 2025 made modifications to the filing arrangements. It was then revoked, in terms the Orissa High Court has set out:
Now, therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by Rule 123 of the aforesaid Rules (Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (Procedure) Rules, 2025), the undersigned is pleased to revoke the Order dated 24.09.2025 with effect from 18.12.2025. This revocation shall not impugn the validity of any appeals lodged pursuant to the prior order before 18.12.2025.
Two things follow for anyone reading an older note or advisory. Directions under rule 123 can be withdrawn, so a filing arrangement described in a portal advisory is not a fixed feature of the rules. And a revocation of this kind was expressly made prospective, preserving appeals already lodged.
The same decisions set out the notifications that fixed the date for filing before the Tribunal — S.O. 4220(E) of 17 September 2025, and its supersession by S.O. 3502(E) of 30 June 2026, which closed the catch-up window on 31 July 2026. Those are dealt with in Part 3 of this series, because they go to the statutory period rather than to these rules.
What the courts have said so far
Little, and almost all of it about getting to the Tribunal rather than about the conduct of an appeal once there.
In Swati Smita Turuk v. Commissioner, CT & GST, decided 22 May 2026, a Division Bench of the Orissa High Court set out both the notification and the portal's staggered filing schedule, and stated the principle on which writ petitions filed while the Tribunal was not functional are now being disposed of:
It is no longer res integra that the Writ Court can be approached assailing an order for which the forum of appeal is provided and the same is entertainable in the event the forum is not made functional or constituted as the person cannot be rendered remediless. Equally it is true that if conditions are attached to filing an appeal before such forum, the Writ Court shall ensure strict compliance thereof
The petitioner was directed to make the section 112(8) deposit and to file within the notified timeline, and the Tribunal to entertain the appeal if it was in order.
By Ranjan Ray v. Commissioner of Commercial Taxes and GST, decided 19 September 2026, the same Court was declining to entertain such petitions at all, the Tribunal having been constituted and being "competent to deal with not only the tenability of orders but also factual discrepancies".
That is the practical shift. While the Tribunal was not sitting, a writ lay. Now that it sits, it does not.
Evidence: there is no second bite
Rule 45(1) states the rule and then the exceptions:
The parties to the appeal shall not be entitled to produce any additional evidence, either oral or documentary, before the Appellate Tribunal
The provisos let the Tribunal call for a document, examine a witness or take an affidavit where it needs them to pass orders, for sufficient cause, or where the authority below decided the case without giving a party sufficient opportunity to adduce evidence. That last limb is the one to plead, and it has to be made out on the record of the proceedings below rather than asserted.
Rule 43 completes the picture from the other side: if the appellant appears on the day fixed and the respondent does not, the Tribunal may hear and decide the appeal ex parte.
What it costs
The Schedule of Fees is short.
| Matter | Fee |
|---|---|
| Appeal to the Tribunal | as per rule 110(5) of the CGST Rules — Rs 1,000 per lakh, minimum Rs 5,000, maximum Rs 25,000 |
| Interlocutory application | Rs 5,000 |
| Application for inspection of records | Rs 5,000 |
| Any other application not specifically mentioned | Rs 5,000 |
| Certified copy of a final order, to a person other than a party | Rs 5 per page |
And a proviso worth knowing: no fee is payable on a petition, application or reference filed by a departmental authority. The Revenue's interlocutory applications are free; yours are Rs 5,000 each.
Before you file at the Tribunal
1. Type it double-spaced on A4, paged and indexed — and do the same for every miscellaneous application, because rule 20(2) reaches them too. 2. Certified copies of both orders where the matter has been through a first appeal, not merely the appellate order — rule 21. 3. Number the grounds consecutively, under distinct heads — rule 20(1). 4. Any ground outside the memorandum needs leave, which means an application under rule 31, in GSTAT FORM-01, with an affidavit, and a Rs 5,000 fee. 5. Treat a defect notice as a limitation event. Thirty days is the Registrar's maximum, and the appeal is treated as filed only when the final acknowledgement issues. 6. Diarise one month from the final order if a rectification application may be needed — it is shorter than the three months section 161 allows against the officer below.
This is the last of five notes on GST time limits. The others cover what to check when the notice lands, the time the department has to pass the order, the appeal ladder and its two pre-deposits and what is left when the time has gone. > This note is general information drawn from the Act, the Rules and the > Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (Procedure) Rules, 2025, and is not > advice upon any particular matter. The rules are new and little judicial > guidance on them yet exists. The outcome in any case depends upon its own > record.
Questions this answers
- What are the GSTAT Procedure Rules, 2025?
- Rules made by the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal itself under section 111 of the CGST Act, notified by G.S.R. 256(E) dated 24 April 2025 and in force from the date of publication. They run to a hundred and twenty-four rules with a Schedule of Fees and a set of GSTAT Forms, and they govern the form of the appeal, the curing of defects, interlocutory applications, evidence, hearing and pronouncement.
- Does a GSTAT appeal have to be double spaced?
- Yes, and so does every miscellaneous application. Rule 20(1) requires the grounds to be set out concisely under distinct heads, numbered consecutively and typed in double space. Rule 20(2) requires every Form of appeal, cross-objection, reference application, stay application or any other miscellaneous application to be typed neatly in double spacing on A4 paper, duly paged, indexed and tagged firmly with the Form of appeal in a separate folder.
- How long do I get to cure a defect in a GSTAT appeal?
- Whatever the Registrar allows, and in no case more than thirty days. Rule 32(1) lets the Registrar accept a defective Form of appeal on sufficient cause and require the documents or amendments within a time which may not exceed thirty days, and rule 32(2) lets him reject the appeal if they are not supplied in time. Because rule 110 of the CGST Rules treats an appeal as filed only when the final acknowledgement issues on removal of defects, a defect notice is a limitation event rather than an administrative one.
- Can I raise a new ground before the Tribunal?
- Only by leave. Rule 31 provides that the appellant shall not, except by leave of the Appellate Tribunal, urge or be heard in support of any ground not set forth in the Form of appeal. The application for leave is an interlocutory application under rule 29, which means GSTAT FORM-01, a supporting affidavit and a fee of Rs 5,000. The Tribunal itself is not confined to the pleaded grounds, but it may not rest its decision on another ground unless the party affected has had a sufficient opportunity of being heard on it.
- How long does the Tribunal have to pronounce its order?
- Rule 103(1) requires the Tribunal, after hearing the parties, to make and pronounce the order either at once or as soon thereafter as may be practicable, but not later than thirty days from the final hearing, excluding vacations and holidays. If the order needs correcting, rule 108(2) gives a party one month from the final order to apply online in GSTAT FORM-01, though a clerical mistake or an accidental slip may be corrected by the Tribunal on its own motion at any time.
More practice notes
- When a GST Notice Lands: What the Act Gives You, and What the Notice SaysA Telangana Full Bench has settled when your clock starts and what makes a notice invalid. Then two demand regimes, and the window in which paying ends the proceeding.
- Their Clock, Not Yours: When the Department Runs Out of TimeIf the order is late the proceeding is already over, by force of section 75(10). Which makes the notifications that moved the deadline worth attacking, and Gauhati has struck one down.
- The GST Appeal Ladder: Periods, Pre-deposits and the Traps in the RulesThree months and one, then three months and three. The Act gives the period; the Rules decide when your appeal counts as filed, and that is where appeals are lost.
Filing before the GSTAT?
The Tribunal is new and its rules are being applied for the first time. We prepare the appeal and every application to the form rule 20 actually requires, treat a defect notice as the limitation event it is, and bring any ground outside the memorandum in properly under rule 31.
Notice Assessment Session — 30 minutes, ₹5,000 + gst. A defence outline: the points to take, the documents to assemble, and the date each step falls due.