UNION OF INDIA & ORS. vs. CHOGORI INDIA RETAIL LIMITED
(Supreme Court)
SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION (CIVIL) Diary No(s). 7374/2020

Supreme Court denied to interfere in the order passed by Delhi High Court in the case of Chogori India Retail Limited dated 09-08-2019 in WPC No. 762/2019.

In the abovesaid order, Delhi High Court allowed the appeal of Chogori India Retail Limited to claim its transitional credit of â‚¹ 1.74 crore under GST and directed the GST department to either re-open the Portal to enable the Petitioner to file its TRAN-1 Form electronically failing which to permit it to file manually. 

High Court also mentioned that amount of GST credit is a substantial sum and it is also not in dispute that there have been numerous glitches on the GST Portal in making it difficult for uploading of the TRAN- 1 Forms. This Court has itself issued orders in numerous cases permitting Petitioners to be afforded one more opportunity to either file the TRAN-1 Form electronically or manually. 

Details of HC order is as below.

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CHOGORI INDIA RETAIL LIMITED vs. UNION OF INDIA & ORS.
(Delhi High Court)
W.P.(C) 762/2019 dated 09.08.2019
Read HC Order

The Petitioner has approached this Court for a direction to the Respondents to allow the Petitioner to file form GST TRAN-1 online or accept the form manually to enable the Petitioner to avail of the transitional credit (TC) of ₹ 1,74,71,030.67.

The Petitioner states that as on 30th June, 2017 it had a transitional credit of ₹ 1,74,71,030.67 lying as credit balance in its credit account. Under Section 140(1) of the CGST Act, 2017 the Petitioner is allowed to take into its electronic tax ledger, the aforementioned transitional credit by carrying it forward in the return relating to the period ending with the day immediately preceding the appointed day. This credit of input tax had to be availed within 90 days from the appointed day by submitting a declaration electronically in Form GST TRAN-1 duly signed on the common Portal specifying therein separately the amount of Input Tax Credit (ITC) of eligible duties and taxes.

The due date for submitting the GST TRAN-1 was extended on account of technical glitches and the due date for furnishing the form was extended to 27th December, 2017. The Petitioner avers that it tried to file the TRAN-1 Form prior to the above deadline numerous times but the system displayed an error and it was unable to upload the form. The Petitioner states that apart from sending E-mail they visited the GST helpdesk several times to resolve the technical issues to enable it to claim the transitional credit. It is stated by the Petitioner that due to its inability to file TRAN-1 Form, the Petitioner faced difficulty in filing its monthly returns and that till the filing of this petition, the Petitioners had paid an amount of ₹ 33,45,790/- solely because they were not allowed the transactional credit by the Respondents.

In response to the notice issued in the petition, a short affidavit has been filed by the Principal Commissioner, CGST, Delhi (East). Inter-alia it is stated that during the 2nd meeting of the ITGRC held on 21st August, 2018 the case of the Petitioner was considered. It was concluded that there was no evidence of error in submitting and filing of TRAN-1 Form prior to the due date. Therefore, the case of the Petitioner fell in the Table-II Category under Serial. No. D. In the case of the Petitioner and 127 similar cases it was decided by the ITGRC not to allow re-filing of the TRAN-1 Form.

Learned counsel for the Petitioner states that they have screenshots of the web Portal at the relevant date and time to demonstrate that the system was in fact not permitting the online filing of the TRAN-1 Form when the Petitioner attempted to do so prior to 27th December, 2017.

This Court would not like to get into the issue whether in fact the Petitioner faced difficulty. The TC available in the account of the Petitioner is a substantial sum. It is not denied by the Respondent that the Petitioner is entitled to carry forward such TC and use it for payment of the taxes under the CGST Act. It is also not in dispute that there have been numerous glitches on the GST Portal in making it difficult for uploading of the TRAN- 1 Forms. This Court has itself issued orders in numerous cases permitting Petitioners to be afforded one more opportunity to either file the TRAN-1 Form electronically or manually. 

Accordingly a direction is issued to the Respondent to either re-open the Portal to enable the Petitioner to file its TRAN-1 Form electronically failing which to permit it to file manually on or before 13th September, 2019. 

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