High Court of Karnataka gave an important judgment dated 27th November 2019 regarding the legality of an order passed by a single judge enabling the assessee to file GST TRAN-2 in case of Union of India v. Aravind Lifestyle Brands [2020] 113 taxmann.com 483 (Karnataka), which is discussed as below:
Facts of the Case
- Assessee while filing Form GST TRAN-1, did not mention the quantity of goods held in stock in Column 7B of Form. It made an attempt to file Form GST TRAN-2, but the same could not be done due to an error message that Forms GST TRAN-1 was not complete in all respects.
- Single Judge of High Court, on writ petition filed by assessee, directed Commissioner to redress the grievance of the assessee to enable it to file Form GST TRAN-2 within the time prescribed. GST Authorities filed an appeal against the impugned order passed by a Single Judge contending that the order enabling the assessee to file Form GST TRAN-2 was contrary to provisions of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act and rule 117 of CGST Rules.
Observation/Judgment
- The High Court, in another case, recorded satisfaction that although there was a failure on the part of the petitioner to fill up the data concerning its stock in Column 7(B) of Form TRAN-1, the error was inadvertent. Even in the present case, there is no dispute that the error committed by the first respondent during the early days of the GST regime was not intentional. In the decision of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, it was observed that by not allowing the right to carry forward the CENVAT credit for not being able to file the Form GST TRAN 1 within the due date may violate the mandate of Clause (g) of Article 19(1) of the Constitution of India. While agreeing with the various decisions of the Delhi High Court and the Gujarat High Court, the Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court passed a similar order.
- Thus it is held that one column was inadvertently not filled in Form GST TRAN-1, but Form GST TRAN-1 was filed within the time stipulated by law. The learned Single Judge and the various High Courts have passed orders granting permission to either submit Form GST TRAN-1 electronically by opening the online portal for that purposes or allowing the petitioner to tender form manually. Therefore, we do not find that any illegality has been committed by the learned Single Judge while passing the impugned order.
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