Once a demand order is passed, you have three months and a pre-deposit to fund. Here is who is legally entitled to advise and appear at each stage, and what the work genuinely requires before you appoint anyone.
Under Section 116 of the CGST Act, a company or taxpayer facing a demand order can be advised and represented by:
All of these can appear before the Appellate Authority and, subject to the procedure rules, before the GST Appellate Tribunal. Only an advocate can take the matter to the High Court.
For most demand orders, the practical answer is a chartered accountant with GST litigation experience, because the same person can rework the demand, compute and fund the pre-deposit, draft the grounds and appear through the Tribunal.
At notice stage you are arguing about what might be demanded. Once the order is passed and DRC-07 is issued, three things become true at once, and they reshape who you need.
A liability now exists on the record. Recovery can follow, and the demand sits against you until it is stayed or set aside.
The clock is three months. A first appeal under Section 107 must be filed in Form APL-01 within three months of communication of the order, with one further condonable month. Our guide to the GST appeal procedure sets out the sequence, and the wider timing framework is in our note on the GST limitation period.
Pre-deposit becomes a gating item. No appeal is entertained unless you pay the admitted tax in full plus 10 per cent of the disputed tax, capped at ₹20 crore under CGST with a matching cap under SGST. At the Tribunal a further 10 per cent of the remaining disputed tax applies, again subject to a cap.
That third point is why the composition of your team matters. The pre-deposit protects you from recovery, but only if it is computed and paid correctly. Get the disputed-tax figure wrong and your appeal is defective on a technicality after you have already paid.
Five pieces, and few individuals cover all five.
Reworking the demand. Before arguing law, rebuild the number. Departmental computations routinely duplicate amounts across years, use gross instead of net, ignore ITC already reversed or tax already paid, and treat a wrong-head payment as non-payment. A large share of what looks like a legal dispute is arithmetic, as set out in our note on resolving inflated GST tax demands.
Testing the order against the notice. New grounds or higher amounts appearing for the first time in the order are bad in law under Section 75(7). Where no hearing was given or the notice was too vague to answer, the arguments in our guide to natural justice in GST adjudication frequently do more than a merits appeal.
Checking the charging provision and limitation. A fully disclosed interpretational issue characterised as suppression is a mismatch worth attacking, covered in Section 73 versus Section 74. For periods from FY 2024-25 the unified provision applies instead, explained in our guide to Section 74A of the CGST Act.
Computing and funding the pre-deposit. An accounting task with a legal consequence.
Drafting grounds and appearing. Grounds of appeal are hard to change later, so they need to be specific, numbered and issue-wise from the outset.
Authorisation must be in writing in every case. Courts have held that service on a representative without specific authorisation is not good service on the taxpayer.
For years, a taxpayer aggrieved by a first appellate order had no functioning second appeal and went to the High Court by writ. That is no longer the position. The Tribunal is constituted and hearing matters, and High Courts including Telangana have declined writs where the GSTAT remedy is available.
Two consequences for your choice of adviser.
Filing is entirely electronic, and the procedure has its own requirements on certified copies, authorisation documents and pre-deposit evidence. Our guides to appeals before the GSTAT and the GSTAT procedure rules set out what the portal expects.
A writ is now the exception, not the default. It survives on narrow grounds: denial of natural justice, limitation computed from the wrong date, documented portal failure, or a demand so disproportionate as to be arbitrary. Choosing between the two routes is a real judgment call, covered in our note on writ versus appeal in tax litigation.
Appointing in month three. Reworking a multi-year computation and assembling annexures takes weeks. An adviser engaged a fortnight before the deadline files what is achievable, not what is right.
Paying pre-deposit on the wrong figure. Either overpaying on the full demand rather than the disputed tax, or underpaying and rendering the appeal defective.
Repeating the reply as the appeal. The appeal is a fresh pleading before a different authority. Where the reply was thin, this is the moment to fix it, not to reproduce it. Our 15-point checklist for replying to a GST show cause notice is the standard the grounds should meet.
Yes. A CA holding a valid certificate of practice is a recognised authorised representative under Section 116 and can draft, file and argue the appeal before the Appellate Authority and the GSTAT.
Not for the first appeal or the Tribunal. You do for a High Court writ or appeal.
No. The appeal will not be entertained. Admitted tax must be paid in full, plus 10 per cent of the disputed tax subject to the statutory cap.
Payment of the pre-deposit operates as a stay on the balance of the demand for the period the appeal is pending.
One further month is condonable on sufficient cause. Beyond that the appellate authority has no power, and your only remaining route is a writ on narrow grounds.
Yes, but with limits on signing pleadings unless specifically authorised.
Usually yes, for continuity, since the appeal is argued on the record the reply created. Where the reply was weak, an independent review is worth having.
Send us the demand order and DRC-07. We will rework the computation, confirm the pre-deposit, tell you whether the order travels beyond the notice, and advise whether this is an appeal or a writ. DSRV and Co LLP represents taxpayers through GST adjudication, first appeals and the GSTAT, and handles the wider picture set out in our guide on how to handle GST litigation in India, as part of our tax litigation practice. Book a free 15-minute demand order review.
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