Court directs revenue authorities to reopen GST portal or accept manual filing for assessee who failed to file GST TRAN-1 due to technical glitch.

Case Name:

M/s. Gupta Agencies Vs. Union Of India And 3 Others

Writ Tax No. 319 of 2019

Key Takeaways:

- The court recognized the assessee’s inability to file GST TRAN-1 electronically due to a technical glitch on the last date.

- The court directed the revenue authorities to provide a solution by either reopening the portal or accepting manual filing of GST TRAN-1.

- The court’s decision upholds the principle of providing a reasonable opportunity to assessees to claim their legitimate transitional credits.

Issue:

Whether the court should direct the revenue authorities to extend the time period for filing GST TRAN-1 or provide an alternative mechanism for the assessee to claim transitional credits, given the technical error that prevented electronic filing on the last date.

Facts:

The assessee, M/s. Gupta Agencies, was unable to file the GST TRAN-1 form electronically on the last date, i.e., 27.12.2017, due to a technical error in the electronic system of the respondent (revenue authorities). Despite making several efforts, the system did not respond, and the assessee was likely to suffer a loss of the transitional credits they were entitled to claim.

Arguments:

The assessee argued that due to the technical error, they were unable to file GST TRAN-1 electronically on the last date and sought a direction from the court to the revenue authorities to extend the time period for filing or provide an alternative mechanism to claim the transitional credits.

The revenue authorities’ arguments were not explicitly mentioned in the judgment.

Key Legal Precedents:

The judgment did not cite any specific legal precedents.

Judgement:

The court directed the respondents (revenue authorities) to either open the portal before 31st March 2019 or entertain the GST TRAN-1 form from the assessee manually. The court further directed the revenue authorities to pass orders on the assessee’s GST TRAN-1 after due verification of the claimed credits and ensure that the assessee is allowed to pay taxes on the regular electronic system using the credits considered for them. The court also granted the respondents (revenue authorities) one month to file a counter-affidavit.

FAQs:

Q1: What was the main issue in this case?

A1: The main issue was that the assessee was unable to file the GST TRAN-1 form electronically on the last date (27.12.2017) due to a technical error in the electronic system of the revenue authorities.

Q2: What was the court’s decision?

A2: The court directed the revenue authorities to either reopen the portal before 31st March 2019 or accept the GST TRAN-1 form manually from the assessee after due verification of the claimed credits.

Q3: Why did the court issue this direction?

A3: The court recognized that the assessee’s inability to file GST TRAN-1 electronically was due to a technical glitch, and therefore, the assessee should be provided a reasonable opportunity to claim their legitimate transitional credits.

Q4: What was the significance of the court’s decision?

A4: The court’s decision upheld the principle of providing a fair opportunity to assessees to claim their legitimate transitional credits, even in cases where technical errors prevented them from meeting the prescribed deadlines.

Q5: What were the legal provisions or precedents cited in the case?

A5: The judgment did not cite any specific legal provisions or precedents.

Heard Sri Aditya Pandey, learned counsel for the petitioner as well as learned Counsel for the respondents.

The petitioner seeks a writ of mandamus directing the GST council respondent no.2 to make recommendations to the Commissioner to extend the time period for filing of GST Tran-1 in the case of the petitioner because his application was not entertained on the last date i.e. 27.12.2017 and he is

permitted to file his complete GST TRAN-1 for the necessary transactional credit as per amended Rule 117 (1A).

The petitioner has alleged in the petition that despite making several efforts on the last date for filing of the application, the electronic system of the respondent no.2 did not respond, as a result of which the petitioner is likely to suffer loss of the credit that it is entitled to by passage of time.

In view of the above, the respondents are directed to open the portal before 31st of March 2019. In the event they do not do so, they will entertain the GST TRAN-1 of the petitioner manually and pass orders on it after due verification of the credits as claimed by the petitioner. They will also ensure that the petitioner is allowed to pay its taxes on the regular electronic system also which is being maintained for use of the credit likely to be considered for the petitioner.

Learned Counsel for the respondents may file a counter affidavit within a month.

List this matter on 16.04.2019.

Order Date :- 14.3.2019