M/S Dev Priya Industries PVT. LTD. vs. Union Of INDIA Through Secretary And 5 Others
Facts
The petitioner, M/s Dev Priya Industries Pvt. Ltd., filed a writ petition seeking a mandamus directing the GST Council (respondent no. 2) to recommend an extension of the time period for filing the GST Tran-1 application. The petitioner alleged that its application was not entertained on the last date, December 27, 2017, due to the electronic system of the respondent no. 2 not responding despite several efforts. This failure to file resulted in the petitioner being at risk of losing entitled transactional credit. The petition was filed before the High Court on February 23, 2018.
Held
The Court held that the respondents are directed to reopen the portal within two weeks from the date of the order. In the alternative, if the portal is not reopened, the respondents are directed to entertain the petitioner's application manually. This manual acceptance should be followed by passing orders after due verification of the credits claimed by the petitioner. Furthermore, the Court directed that the petitioner should be allowed to pay its taxes on the regular electronic system, which is being maintained for the use of the credit likely to be considered for the petitioner. The writ petition was disposed of with these directions. The ratio decidendi is that genuine technical difficulties faced by taxpayers in filing statutory forms due to system failures should be addressed by providing alternative mechanisms for filing or by directing the reopening of the portal to prevent loss of legitimate credit.
Key Issues
1. Whether the petitioner is entitled to a direction for the reopening of the GST portal or manual acceptance of its GST Tran-1 application, considering the alleged technical glitches on the last date of filing (December 27, 2017)? Petitioner's Contention: The petitioner argued that due to the non-responsive electronic system of the GST Council on the last date for filing, it was unable to submit its complete application for transactional credit. This technical failure, beyond its control, has led to a potential loss of credit, and therefore, the portal should be reopened, or the application should be accepted manually. Respondent's Contention: The judgment does not record any specific arguments or contentions made by the respondents (Union of India, GST Council, and others) regarding the petitioner's plea or the technical issues raised.
AI-generated summary — verify with the full judgment below
Court No. - 35 Case :- WRIT TAX No. - 228 of 2018 Petitioner :- M/S Dev Priya Industries Pvt. Ltd. Respondent :- Union Of India Through Secretary And 5 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Suyash Agarwal Counsel for Respondent :- A.S.G.I.,C.S.C.,Ramesh Chandra Shukla Hon'ble Bharati Sapru,J. Hon'ble Neeraj Tiwari,J. Heard Sri Suyash Agrawal, learned counsel for the petitioner, Shri Anant Kr. Tiwari, learned counsel for the respondent nos.1 and 2 and Shri R.C. Shukla, learned counsel for the respondent nos.3 to 5. The petitioner seeks a writ of mandamus directing the GST council respondent no.2 to make recommendations to the State Government 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 has filed his complete application for the necessary transactional credit. 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 v
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