Case Law Details
Jakap Metind Pvt Ltd Vs Union of India (Gujarat High Court)
In this case, it is not as if the petitioner has not filed FORM GST TRAN-1 within the time provided by the respondents under the rules. The petitioner had filed the form, but on account of not properly understanding the nature of the columns provided in the form, due to inadvertent error, did not mention the details of Rs.83,99,136/- in column 6 of Table 5a and instead uploaded the details in column 5 of Table 5a in FORM GST TRAN-1. Now the substantive right of the petitioner to claim transitional credit of such amount is sought to be denied on the ground that the time limit for filing revised FORM GST TRAN-1 has elapsed.
In the opinion of this court, as held by the Delhi High Court in M/s Blue Bird Pure Pvt. Ltd. vs. Union of India (supra), the respondents ought to have provided in the system itself a facility for rectification of such errors which are clearly bona fide. Besides, although the system provided for revision of a return, the deadline for making the revision coincided with the last date for filing the return, that is, 27th December, 2017. Thus, such facility was rendered impractical and meaningless.
This court is further of the view that retention of the amount of Rs.83,99,136/- by the respondents which the petitioner is otherwise entitled to get by way of transitional credit would be directly hit by article 265 of the Constitution of India which provides that no tax shall be levied or collected except by authority of law. The respondents have no legal authority to retain the amount of credit to which the petitioner is duly entitled and retention of the same is violative of article 265 of the Constitution of India. Therefore, when the petitioner is entitled to credit of Rs.83,99,136/-, non grant of the same is bad in law.
In the light of the above discussion, the action of the respondents in denying transitional credit of the sum of Rs.83,99,136/-, which even according to the respondents, the petitioner is otherwise entitled by way of transitional credit, cannot be sustained.
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