What is an appeal?

Any appeal under any law is an application to a higher court for a reversal of the decision of a lower court. Appeals arise when there are any legal disputes.

What are disputes?

Tax laws impose obligations. Such obligations are broadly of two kinds: tax-related and procedure-related. The taxpayer’s compliance with these obligations is verified by the tax officer (through audit, anti-evasion, examining etc.). Sometimes there are situations of actual or perceived non-compliance. If the difference in views persists, it results into a dispute, which is then required to be resolved.

The initial resolution of this dispute is done by a departmental officer by a quasi-judicial process resulting into the issue of an initial order known by various names -assessment order, adjudication order, order-in-original, etc.

GST Act defines the phrase “adjudicating authority” as any authority competent to pass any order or decision under this Act, but does not include the Board, the First Appellate Authority and the Appellate Tribunal. Thus, in a way, any decision or order passed under the Act is an act of “adjudication”.

Steps of appeals under GST

Appeal level	Orders passed by	Appeal to	Sections of CGST Act
1st	Adjudicating Authority	First Appellate Authority	107
2nd	First Appellate Authority	Appellate Tribunal	111,112,113
3rd	Appellate Tribunal	High Court	117
4th	High Court	Supreme Court	118