Case Law Details
The Tyre Plaza Vs Union of India & Ors. (Delhi High Court)
Learned counsel for the Petitioner points out that in the present case, the eligibility of the Petitioner to claim the input tax credit (ITC) has not been doubted by the Respondents. However, for no fault of the Petitioner, despite repeated attempts, it could not file the form GST TRAN–1 claiming the tax credit.
Court held that the entire GST system is still in a trial and error phase and it will be too much of a burden to place on the Assessees to expect them to comply with the requirement of the law where they are unable to even connect with the system on account of network failures or other failures.
The Court would urge the ITGRC to review the policy it has adopted in such cases, and acknowledge instances like the present one, where the Petitioners are not able to link with the Portal and therefore, the fact of a technical glitch is not able to be accounted for in the system.
The Court therefore, directs that the Respondents to either open the Portal to enable the Petitioner to again file the TRAN-1 Form electronically, failing which they will accept the TRAN–1 Form already filed manually by the Petitioner. The Petitioner’s claim shall thereafter be processed in accordance with law.
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The point(s) of grievance taken on concern and the HC’s Order is confined to the area that the GST System in place is replete with tech. glitches disabling the aggrieved, even if so wish, complying with the procedural formalities; in particular, in the short matter of the filing of / uploading certain prescribed FORM (s) on the GST Portal. In other words, not taken on hence the HC has not been obliged to deal with the larger question based on the reality that the GST law itself, viewed from a multidimensional perspective, is still in the ‘process of making’.
It is noteworthy that as is being strongly canvassed in knowledgeable circles, – which finds immense support in what a renowned constitutional expert (Advocate in practice) has opined based on his courage of convections, – the migration of the extant VAT / ST (which itself has been replete with inept drafting hence has proved to be a source of an inconclusive litigation) to and the advent of GST law, the current situation could be described as ‘disaster in the making’- ‘oxymoron’ !
(OPEN/ invite GST law pundits to EDIT; if care/ mind to make any value addition on the indicated lines)
OVER To …..
courtesy
(in Public Interest)