• Notification Date: 12-11-2022
• Notification No: N/A

Karnataka High Court Directs to Restore Registration

The Karnataka High Court has ruled in a significant ruling that the GST Department must restore the GST registration that have been cancelled. The reason behind such a declaration is that an assessee was unable to pay the GST return due to the sudden demise of the auditor.

According to the stamen of the petitioner, he could not file his GST returns within the allotted time due to the sudden demise of the auditor. As a result, he has been issued a show-cause notice for delay in filing GST return, dated 24.02.2022. The petitioner received a mail regarding the show cause notice in the spam filter of the mail. However, he was not aware of the spam section and the show-cause notice remained unnoticed by the petitioner. As a result, he received a respondent no. 2 leading to the cancellation of his GST registration.

According to the statement of Justice S.R. Krishna Kumar, the contention of the petitioner holds truth. He states that the appellate authority has no absolute right to condone the delay of an individual in preferring an appeal under Section 107 of the CGST Act in a particular case. It is up to the High Court who is authorized to condone the delay by exercising its powers under Article 226 of the Indian Constitution.   

The Court observed that in this case, the petitioner was unable to file his GST returns within the deadline due to the demise of the Auditor and there was no fault on his part. The Court noticed that he was not an intentional defaulter and it was only due to unavoidable circumstances that he failed to make the payment. The Court ordered the GST Council to restore the petitioner’s GST registration, remarking that his appeal was fair and acceptable. His appeal deserves to be analyzed in a justice-oriented approach; the Karnataka HC rules.