Pradeep Goyal Vs Union of India & Ors. (Supreme Court of India)
The Supreme Court of India has directed a petitioner to approach the GST Council to address issues related to the tracking and verification of GST paid on foreign Online Information and Database Access or Retrieval (OIDAR) services. The ruling came in a writ petition filed by Pradeep Goyal, who had invoked Articles 32 and 142 of the Constitution to seek a mandamus from the court. The petitioner’s primary grievance was the lack of a robust mechanism for tracking and ensuring GST compliance by overseas OIDAR service providers who cater to non-taxable online recipients (NTORs) in India.
The petition raised several specific issues, including the absence of a proper mechanism to track GST paid by NTORs on a reverse charge basis, the need for a specific GST return form like GSTR-5A to reflect revenue from such services, and the lack of an effective system to verify the total receipts earned by these foreign service providers. The petitioner also sought directions for overseas providers to establish a fixed presence in India or to grant Indian authorities access to their accounting records to verify compliance.
After hearing both the petitioner’s counsel and the Additional Solicitor General for the Union of India, the Supreme Court decided not to adjudicate the matter directly. Instead, it reserved liberty for the petitioner to submit a copy of the writ petition as a formal representation to the GST Council. The court directed the GST Council to consider this representation as expeditiously as possible and in accordance with the law. With this directive, the Supreme Court effectively passed the responsibility of addressing these policy and implementation issues to the specialized legislative body, disposing of the writ petition. The court’s order highlights the administrative and policy-making nature of the petitioner’s requests, which are better suited for the GST Council’s consideration rather than judicial intervention.
