Jkb Motors vs. Union Of INDIA - Kerala High Court, 24 January 2020

IN THE HIGH COURT OF KERALA AT ERNAKULAM PRESENT THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE ALEXANDER THOMAS FRIDAY, THE 24TH DAY OF JANUARY 2020 / 4TH MAGHA, 1941 WP(C).No.34177 OF 2019(V) PETITIONER/S: JKB MOTORS BUILDING NO. XII 27 AND 28, PULINCHODE, ALUVA - 683

101.

REPRESENTED BY ITS MANAGING PARTNER A V YACOB. BY ADVS. SRI.A.KUMAR SRI.P.J.ANILKUMAR SMTG.MINI(1748) SRI.P.S.SREE PRASAD SRI.AJAY V.ANAND RESPONDENT/S: 1 UNION OF INDIA REPRESENTED BY THE FINANCE SECRETARY, NORTH BLOCK, NEW DELHI. 2 THE GST COUNCIL REPRESENTED BY ITS SECRETARY, 5TH FLOOR, TOWER II, JEEVAN BHARTI BUILDING, JANPATH ROAD, CANNAUGHT PLACE, NEW DELHI - 110 001. 3 CENTRAL BOARD OF INDIRECT TAXES AND CUSTOMS REPRESENTED BY ITS SECRETARY (REVENUE), DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE, MINISTRY OF FINANCE, NO.137, NORTH BLOCK, NEW DELHI - 110 001. 4 GOODS AND SERVICES TAX NETWORK EAST WING, 4TH FLOOR, WORLD MARK -1, AEROCITY, NEW DELHI - 110037. 5 THE COMMISSIONER GST AND CENTRAL EXCISE CENTRAL REVENUE BUILDING, I S PRESS RD., COCHIN - 682 018. 6 THE COMMISSIONER STATE GOODS AND SERVICES TAX DEPT., GOVERNMENT OF KERALA, SECRETARIAT, THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - 695 001. 7 THE JOINT COMMISSIONER (TECH) PRINCIPAL NODAL OFFICER, CENTRAL TAX AND CENTRAL

WP(C).No.34177 OF 2019(V) 2 EXCISE, CENTRAL REVENUE BUILDING, I.S. PRESS ROAD, KOCHI - 682 018. 8 SUPERINTENDENT CENTRAL GOODS AND SERVICES TAX DEPARTMENT, ALUVA, ERNAKULAM. R1 BY ADV. SHRI.P.VIJAYAKUMAR, ASG OF INDIA R2-5, R7-8 BY SRI.P.R.SREEJITH, SC, CENTRAL BOARD OF EXCISE AND CUSTOMS OTHER PRESENT: SMT.THUSHARA JAMES, GOVT.PLEADER THIS WRIT PETITION (CIVIL) HAVING COME UP FOR ADMISSION ON 24.01.2020, THE COURT ON THE SAME DAY DELIVERED THE FOLLOWING:

WP(C).No.34177 OF 2019(V) 3 ALEXANDER THOMAS, J. ----------------------------------------- W.P.(C.) No.34177 of 2019 ----------------------------------------- Dated this the 24th day of January, 2020 JUDGMENT The prayers in the above W.P.(C.) are as follows : “(i) To call for the relevant records relating to Exhibit P8 letter to the 7th respondent in compliance with judgment dated 15.02.2019 (ii) Issue a Writ of Mandamus or such other appropriate direction or order directing the respondents to transfer balance of input tax credit lying in the petitioner's CENVAT ledger as on 30.06.2017 to the petitioner's Electronic Credit Ledger forthwith. (iii) Pass such other appropriate writ, order or direction as this Hon'ble Court may deem just and fit in the circumstances of the case.”

Heard Sri.A.Kumar, learned counsel appearing for the petitioner and Sri.P.R.Sreejith, learned Central Government Counsel appearing for 2 to 5, 7 and 8, Smt.Thushara James, learned Government Pleader appearing for R6 and Sri.P.Vijayakumar, learned Asst. Solicitor General appearing for R1 (Union of India).

It is now pointed out by Sri.A.Kumar, learned counsel appearing for the petitioner and Sri.P.R.Sreejith, learned Central Government counsel appearing for the respondents 2 to 5, 7 and 8 that the said contesting respondents 2 to 5, 7 and 8 have now filed a statement dated 10.1.2020 which reads as follows :

“1. It is respectfully submitted that the petitioner is a partnership, under the Partnership Act, 1932. Upon the roll out of Goods & Services Tax in India, petitioner has migrated to the new system with GST No.32AAHFJ5118P2Z4. 2. The petitioner had earlier filed Writ Petition (Civil) No.3892 of 2019 seeking a direction to the respondents to allow them to file GST TRAN-1 Declaration for claiming Input Tax Credit as per provisions of Section 140(3) of

WP(C).No.34177 OF 2019(V) 4 the CGST Act, 2017 read with Rule 117(4) of the GST Rules, 2017. The main contention raised by the petitioner was that they were not able to file TRAN-1 Declaration within the stipulated time due to technical error in GST Portal.

The Hon'ble High Court by Judgment dated 15.02.2019 disposed of the Writ petition with the following directions. “The petitioner shall apply to the Nodal Officer appointed in terms of CBIC Circular No.39/13/2018 - GST dated 03.04.2018 within two weeks of the receipt of the judgment and the Nodal Officer if he is satisfied that the petitioner was not able to upload Form GST TRAN-1 due to reasons not attributable to the petitioner has to take action to enable the petitioner to avail the credit.” Accordingly, the petitioner made an application before the Nodal Officer, Central GST, Cochin and the Nodal Officer forwarded the request of the petitioner to the IT Grievance Redressal Committee of the GST Council.

It is respectfully submitted that the issue pertaining to filing of TRAN-1 in respect of the above tax payer was taken up with GSTN in the required proforma on 19.11.2019. It is learnt that the case has been considered by the Information Technology Grievance Redressal Committee (ITGRC) of the Hon'ble Goods and Service Tax Council in their 8th meeting. The committee after due examination of the system logs has categorized the tax payer's grievance under Category a-1 i.e., “Cases where the taxpayer received the error 'Processed with error. “As per GST system logs the taxpayer has attempted to submit first time/fresh or revise TRAN1 but could not file because of errors.” The case has been approved by the ITGRC for giving another opportunity to the tax payer for filing TRAN 1..”

The learned counsel appearing for the petitioner would point out that this Court may record the abovesaid statement and may direct the abovesaid contesting respondents to act in the manner, they have undertaken in the said statement. Therefore, it is ordered that the abovesaid statement is recorded and taken on record, so that the petitioner may take the benefit of the submissions now made in the abovesaid statement dated 10.01.2020 rendered by the respondents 2 to 5, 7 and 8 and on doing so, it is for the competent authority and respondents 2 to 5, 7 and 8 to do the necessary as referred to in the abovesaid statement. With these observations and directions, the above W.P.(C.) will stand disposed of. ALEXANDER THOMAS, JUDGE SKS

WP(C).No.34177 OF 2019(V) 5 APPENDIX PETITIONER'S/S EXHIBITS: EXHIBIT P1OF THE KVAT REGISTRATION CERTIFICATE DATED 17.8.2015. EXHIBIT P2OF THE GST REGISTRATION CERTIFICATE DATED 8.9.2018. EXHIBIT P3OF THE DETAILED STOCK STATEMENT OF GOODS AS ON 30.6.2017. EXHIBIT P4OF THE SCREENSHOT OF ERROR 'TCP_ERROR' EXHIBIT P5OF THE LETTER TO THE NODAL OFFICER DATED 5.1.2019. EXHIBIT P6OF THE LETTER FROM 7TH RESPONDENT DATED 17.1.2019. EXHIBIT P7OF THE JUDGMENT IN WPC NO.3892/2019 DATED 15.2.2019. EXHIBIT P8OF THE REPRESENTATION TO NODAL OFFICER DATED 6.3.2019. EXHIBIT P9OF THE REPLY DATED 8.3.2019 FROM NODAL OFFICER. EXHIBIT P10OF THE FOLLOW-UP/REMINDER DATED 30.7.2019 TO NODAL OFFICER EXHIBIT P11OF THE LETTER DATED 20.11.2019 TO 8TH RESPONDENT.