Darshan Processors Vs Union of India & Ors. (Gujarat High Court)
The Gujarat High Court heard multiple petitions raising an identical issue and disposed of them through a common judgment. The facts were taken from Special Civil Application No. 2114 of 2021. The petitioner, a textile dyeing and printing partnership firm holding GST registration, sought a writ under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution to quash an order dated 20 February 2020 passed by the Assistant Commissioner, Central GST & Excise Division-II, Surat. The petitioner also sought a direction to sanction a refund of ₹1,43,780 for July 2017, filed on 17 September 2018 in Form GST RFD-01A, and interest at 9% from the date of the refund application until payment.
The petitioner claimed eligibility for accumulated Input Tax Credit (ITC) refund under the inverted duty structure as per Section 54(3)(ii) of the CGST Act. Since the online refund module was not available, Circular No. 24/24/2017-GST permitted manual filing of applications in Form GST RFD-01A, and Circular No. 17/17/2017 also applied. Accordingly, the petitioner filed GSTR-1 for July 2017 on 26 August 2017, filed the refund application online on 17 September 2018, and subsequently filed the manual refund application before the State GST authority on 26 December 2018. In November 2019, the petitioner learned that the proper jurisdiction was the Central GST authority; therefore, it requested transfer of records, which occurred on 10 December 2019.
