Acme Industries And Anr. vs. The Union Of INDIA And 5 Ors.

Held

The Court held that if a provision is made for electronic filing of returns and the uploading could not be done in time due to technical glitches, the concerned individual or firm should not be put at a disadvantage. The Court noted that the petitioner's case is not about seeking time for filing but about the inability to file due to portal issues. The Court reiterated its previous direction that the GST Council (Respondent No. 5) should examine the petitioner's grievance and allow them to file the return either electronically or manually to prevent them from being deprived of their due input tax credit. This exercise was to be completed within three weeks from the receipt of the order. Subsequently, in the present petition, the Court directed the respondents to re-open web portals for the petitioners to upload their Form GST TRAN-1 electronically or allow manual filing, to be completed within three months of receiving a certified copy of the order.

Facts

The petitioners, Acme Industries and Tilok Chand Chhabra, are challenging the action of the Commissioner, Central Goods and Service Tax, Assam (Respondent No. 2), for not allowing them to submit their GST TRAN-2 return. This return is crucial for claiming input tax credit. The petitioners had previously approached the Gauhati High Court in WP(C) No. 4901/2018 due to the GST portal's non-acceptance of their TRAN-2 return. The Court had then directed the authorities to facilitate the submission of TRAN-2, either electronically or manually. However, the petitioners allege that the authorities refused to accept the return, demanding proof of genuine difficulty in uploading, which the petitioners argue is impossible to prove due to technical glitches.

Key Issues

1. Whether the authorities are justified in refusing to allow the petitioner to submit GST TRAN-2 return, either electronically or manually, despite a previous High Court order directing such facilitation (Section 7 of the CGST Act, 2017 and relevant rules)? Petitioner's Argument: The petitioner contends that the authorities have failed to comply with the previous order of the Court, which directed them to allow the submission of TRAN-2 return electronically or manually. They argue that technical glitches in the GST portal prevented them from uploading the form, and it is unreasonable to expect them to prove the exact nature of these glitches. Failure to accept the return deprives them of their legitimate input tax credit. Revenue's Argument: The respondents, through the Assistant Solicitor General, submitted that the Commissioner of GST examined the grievances and found that while TRAN-1 was filed, the information within it was not submitted correctly, and it was not revised within the stipulated time. The matter was forwarded to higher authorities, who indicated that re-opening the portal or allowing manual filing due to technical glitches might not be in consonance with the current statutory framework.