Bombay High Court: Assessee permitted to tender the revised form GST TRAN-1, online/manually as the Assessee could not upload the same due to technical glitches. As a result of which the said Tran-1 claims were not approved by the ITGRC Committee

Gayatri Agro Agencies vs. The Union of India & Ors.; High Court of Bombay; 926 W.P. No. 5878 of 2020; 07.09.2021

Facts and Issue: The Petitioner approached the Hon’ble High Court with the grievance that after introduction of Central Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017 and Central Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017, there were several glitches in the online submission of forms software owing to the new regime. Under the new regime, the establishments like the petitioner were permitted to carry forward existing accrued CENVAT credit upto 30.06.2017 under Section 140 of the Act.

While uploading its form GST TRAN-1, the Petitioner realized that the form has not been properly uploaded due to the glitches in the portal of the GST. The petitioner, therefore, lodged complaints as regards the glitches and the copies of the same are placed on record. After lodging multiple complaints, the petitioner received a communication from the GSTN Portal that the grievance of the petitioner cannot be resolved as the period for uploading form GST TRAN-1 return had expired. In view of the above, the petitioner attempted a manual submission of its revised form GST TRAN-1 and informed the Department about the technical glitches in the portal.

The grievance of the petitioner was that, on the one hand, his entire TRAN-1 form could not be uploaded due to the technical glitches in the GSTN Portal and on the other hand, the respondent authorities are not allowing the petitioner, either to revise the proposal or submit the hard copy of the proposal, manually. Consequentially, the accrued CENVAT credit available to the petitioner has not been allowed to be utilized as the form of the petitioner was not appropriately loaded due to the glitches in the GSTN Portal.

Observations:

It was observed that after the petitioner first failed in making a complete uploading of the TRAN-1 form, he could succeed in uploading the said form without glitches on 10.11.2017. The revision that is sought, is not being accepted by the authorities. His first revision is dated 08.01.2018, which was not being accepted online and, therefore, he tendered the same manually to the Superintendent GST Office, Jalgaon. This is not being accepted on the ground that it amounts to a Second Revision and the Rules do not permit a Second Revision. On the basis of the record, the learned counsel submits that the Department has been treating the uploading of the TRAN-1 form online which was a second attempt by the petitioner, to be the first revision. It was found from the contents of the TRAN-1 form that the successful attempt of the petitioner in uploading the form online was nothing new but the exact copy of the form which he had attempted to submit online for the first time and in which effort, he had been unsuccessful because of the glitches in GSTN Portal.

The Impugned order dated 12.06.2020 passed by the Superintendent CGST and Central Excise, Amalner Range was based on the reference of the ITGRC Committee that the TRAN-1 claims filed by the petitioner have not been approved. It was observed that no reasons were set out for disapproving the TRAN-1 claims. In the absence of reasons, the order cannot be sustained, as it reflects non-application of mind. Hence, the impugned order dated 12.06.2020 was quashed and set aside.

Held: The Petitioner was therefore, permitted to tender the revised form GST TRAN-1, online as well as by tendering a copy manually to respondent No.4 within two (2) weeks’39; time. The Petitioner was further permitted to submit the revised form manually, in view of the judgment delivered by the Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Adfert Technologies Pvt. Ltd. vs. Union of India 2019 SCC Online P & H 5701 and the judgment delivered by the learned Division Bench of the Gujarat High Court in Siddharth Enterprises vs. The Nodal Officer, 2019 (29) G.S.T.L. 664. The authorities will then be required to decide the revised form filed by the petitioner online / manually in accordance with the procedure as is prescribed.