98 High Court decisions on GST, by subject

Credit cannot be reversed in the buyer's hands on a mere GSTR-2A mismatch without first proceeding against the supplier; action against the recipient is confined to exceptional situations such as collusion or a missing supplier.

Used for: The first authority to cite in any 16(2)(c) reply where the documentation is intact.

Retrospective cancellation of the supplier's registration does not by itself defeat a bona fide purchaser's credit; the claim must be examined on the documents produced.

Used for: Where the demand rests on a cancellation order passed years after the supply.

Where purchases and payments were genuine and made before the suppliers' registrations were cancelled, the authorities were directed to consider the credit afresh on the documents rather than deny it mechanically.

Used for: Establishes that genuineness is a question of fact to be examined, not presumed against the buyer.

Credit could not be denied to a purchaser who transacted while the supplier's registration was valid and who produced the supporting documents; the matter was remitted for verification.

Used for: Companion authority to LGW Industries on the same fact pattern.

Credit cannot be denied solely because it is not reflected in GSTR-2A; the taxpayer must be given an opportunity to establish entitlement on the underlying documents.

Used for: The answer to a notice that treats the portal statement as conclusive.

Rule 86A does not permit blocking of an amount exceeding the credit available in the electronic credit ledger; negative blocking is outside the rule.

Used for: Where the blocked amount exceeds the ledger balance, which is the commonest excess.

The existence of a credit balance in the ledger is a condition precedent to the exercise of the power under Rule 86A.

Used for: Jurisdictional challenge to blocking imposed on a nil or insufficient balance.

Reasons to believe under Rule 86A must be recorded and the power exercised on the officer's own satisfaction, not on directions received from another formation.

Used for: Where blocking follows an alert or an instruction rather than an independent opinion.

Upheld the constitutional validity of Section 16(4); credit is a concession which the legislature may subject to a time limit.

Used for: Read before advising on a Section 16(4) challenge; the general attack has failed.

Section 16(4) is valid and operates independently of the payment of late fee; belated filing does not extend the credit window.

Used for: Answers the argument that regularising a return revives barred credit.

The notification purporting to lapse accumulated credit in the textile sector was held to be beyond the rule making power, since the parent provision did not authorise lapsing of credit.

Used for: The model for an excess of delegation challenge to a credit restricting notification.

The condition denying transitional credit to a dealer who was not in possession of duty paying documents was held to be arbitrary to the extent indicated; the challenge to the transitional restrictions was entertained on merits.

Used for: The origin of the litigation that ended in the Supreme Court's reopening of the portal.

Denial of transitional credit for a procedural failure to file the form within the prescribed time was held violative of Articles 14 and 300A on the facts.

Used for: The impossibility and equitable argument where a portal failure is documented.

Unutilised credit accrued under the earlier laws is a vested right which cannot be defeated by a procedural time limit in the rules; the department was directed to permit filing.

Used for: The vested right formulation, still cited on credits no form could carry.

The time limit for filing TRAN-1 prescribed by the rules was held to be directory rather than mandatory, and filing was permitted within an extended period.

Used for: Read with the subsequent retrospective amendment and the Supreme Court's direction; useful for the reasoning, not as a current entitlement.

A show cause notice that does not disclose the contravention or the material relied on, and merely reproduces the statutory language, is vague and unsustainable; the summary in DRC-01 is not a substitute for the notice.

Used for: The leading High Court authority on a vague or omnibus GST notice.

An opportunity of personal hearing must be given before an adverse order under Section 75(4), whether or not the taxpayer has requested one.

Used for: Where the order records that no hearing was sought.

An order passed without affording the hearing contemplated by Section 75(4), and without dealing with the reply, was set aside and the matter remitted.

Used for: Recent authority for a remand where the reply on record was not considered.

Examined whether the force majeure condition and the recommendation of the Council were satisfied for the later notifications extending limitation under Section 168A.

Used for: Illustrative of the Section 168A challenge; the question has travelled further and must be verified.

A summary of an order in DRC-07 cannot substitute for an adjudication order containing reasons; the proceeding was held to be defective.

Used for: Where only the summary has been served and no reasoned order exists.

Where an order was passed without communicating the material relied on and without a hearing, the order was set aside as being in breach of natural justice.

Used for: Where the order rests on data or statements never supplied to the taxpayer.

Sections 129 and 130 operate independently; confiscation requires an intent to evade tax to be established with recorded reasons and cannot follow mechanically from detention.

Used for: Where a confiscation notice is issued along with the detention order on the same material.

Undervaluation of goods in the invoice is not by itself a ground to detain a consignment under Section 129; valuation is a matter for assessment.

Used for: The answer to a detention founded on the officer's view of price.

Issued directions that no recovery be made during search proceedings and that any voluntary payment be made after the search is concluded, of the taxpayer's own volition.

Used for: The foundation of a refund claim for a payment obtained during a search.

Laid down guidelines on the conduct of search, summons and arrest under the GST Act, including the recording of statements and the treatment of the person summoned.

Used for: Cited on the conduct of an investigation, alongside the later Supreme Court authority.

Goods in transit could not be detained on the basis of an allegation against a supplier further up the chain where the documents accompanying the consignment were in order.

Used for: Where the detention rests on the chain rather than on the consignment.

Provisional attachment cannot be resorted to as a matter of course; the conditions in Section 83 must be satisfied and the power cannot be delegated casually.

Used for: The first authority on the strict construction of Section 83, followed by the Supreme Court.

An attachment ceases to have effect after one year and cannot be continued by a fresh order on the same material.

Used for: Where a bank account remains frozen beyond the statutory year.

An attachment made without forming and recording the opinion required by Section 83 was set aside; the reasons must be communicated to the taxpayer.

Used for: Where the DRC-22 discloses no material and the reasons are withheld.

The power under Section 83 is not available to secure a liability that has not been quantified in any pending proceeding against the person whose property is attached.

Used for: Where the attachment precedes any determination, or targets a person other than the taxable person.

Rule 89(5) was held ultra vires to the extent it excluded input services from the inverted duty refund formula.

Used for: Reversed by the Supreme Court; retained for the structural argument on a rule exceeding its section.

The inverted duty refund is a statutory concession whose contours the legislature may define; the exclusion of input services was upheld.

Used for: The view approved by the Supreme Court in VKC Footsteps.

Refund of integrated tax paid on exports could not be withheld merely because the exporter had claimed a higher rate of duty drawback, in the absence of a statutory bar.

Used for: The standard authority where an export refund is held on a drawback objection.

Followed Amit Cotton Industries and directed refund of integrated tax on exports with interest.

Used for: Companion authority; useful for the direction on interest.

The pre import condition in the advance authorisation scheme, read with Rule 96(10), was held to be arbitrary and unreasonable in its operation on the facts examined.

Used for: Where an export refund is denied by reference to Rule 96(10).

Held that the appellate pre-deposit could not be paid by debiting the electronic credit ledger.

Used for: Predates and is answered by the later circular permitting output tax to be paid from credit; know it because departments still cite it.

Considered the claim to a cash refund of credit that could not be transitioned, and directed the authority to examine the claim under the transitional provisions rather than reject it outright.

Used for: Where credit is stranded and neither transition nor refund is being permitted.

Split verdict on the validity of Sections 13(8)(b) and 8(2) of the IGST Act; on reference the provisions were upheld but confined in operation to the IGST Act, and held not available to sustain a levy of central and state tax.

Used for: The reading down is the answer to a state demand on an intermediary service.

Upheld Section 13(8)(b) as a valid exercise of the power to fix the place of supply.

Used for: The contrary view; know it before framing a validity challenge.

A service provider performing services on a principal to principal basis under a master services agreement is not an intermediary, and refund could not be denied on that ground.

Used for: The leading authority for a back office or support services provider.

An Indian branch providing professional services to overseas member firms on its own account was held not to be an intermediary, and the refund of unutilised credit was directed.

Used for: Where the department treats a service rendered to a foreign group entity as intermediation.

Struck down the notifications levying integrated tax on ocean freight in the hands of a CIF importer.

Used for: Affirmed by the Supreme Court; the reasoning on double taxation of a composite supply travels widely.

Examined the intermediary characterisation of a travel distribution service and the consequences under Section 13(8)(b) on the terms of the agreement before the Court.

Used for: Illustrates that the characterisation turns on the contractual role, not the industry.

The mandatory one third deemed deduction for land in the rate notification was read down as optional; where the actual value of land is ascertainable it must be deducted, and refund of the excess tax collected on the land component was directed with interest.

Used for: Plot plus construction and bungalow schemes, any project where land value exceeds a third of the price, and as the template for a refund claim on tax paid over a deemed land value.

Retrospective cancellation requires the show cause notice to disclose the proposed retrospectivity and the order to record reasons, having regard to the consequences for the taxpayer and its customers.

Used for: To have the retrospective date modified even where cancellation itself is accepted.

Permitted revocation of registrations cancelled for non filing, on terms requiring the returns to be filed and the dues paid, notwithstanding the expiry of the statutory period.

Used for: The standard authority where the thirty day revocation window has run.

Cancellation of registration on a ground not disclosed in the notice, and without reasons, was set aside; the power cannot be exercised casually.

Used for: Where the cancellation order recites a ground the notice never alleged.

Directed restoration of a cancelled registration where the taxpayer had filed the returns and paid the dues, the cancellation having caused disproportionate hardship.

Used for: Early authority on proportionality in cancellation matters.

An order cancelling registration must contain reasons; a cryptic order that merely refers to the notice is unsustainable.

Used for: Where the cancellation order is a template with no findings.

A circular treating services ancillary to the distribution of electricity as taxable was struck down as contrary to the exemption notification.

Used for: Cited wherever a circular restricts an exemption entry.

The exemption for contributions to a resident welfare association applies to the amount up to the notified threshold, and only the excess is taxable.

Used for: The answer to a demand computing tax on the whole contribution once the threshold is crossed.

Examined when a payment constitutes consideration for a supply, holding that a supply requires reciprocal enforceable obligations; amounts received without such a nexus are outside the levy.

Used for: The starting point for arguing that a receipt is not consideration for any supply.

Upheld the constitutional validity of Section 171 and the anti profiteering machinery while addressing the challenges to methodology; individual computations remain open to challenge.

Used for: Read before framing an anti profiteering defence; the attack must be on the computation.

Reiterated that an exemption notification must be construed strictly at the stage of eligibility and liberally in giving effect to its object once eligibility is established.

Used for: The two stage rule, in a GST context.

Permitted rectification of GSTR-3B for the months July to September 2017 where the auto populated statement was unavailable.

Used for: Reversed by the Supreme Court; retained because the reasoning on documented portal failure still surfaces.

Permitted rectification of a bona fide error in GSTR-1 beyond the ordinary window, observing that a technical difficulty should not result in a permanent loss of credit to the recipient.

Used for: Where an invoice was reported against the wrong GSTIN or with wrong particulars.

Where a return could not be filed correctly on account of a portal error which was reported at the time, the authorities were directed to permit correction.

Used for: The value of a contemporaneous grievance ticket; without it this relief is not available.

Directed consideration of a correction where the supplier had wrongly reported an inter state supply as intra state, the error being clerical and revenue neutral.

Used for: Wrong head reporting, read with the Section 77 refund route.

In the absence of a notification specifying the conditions for cross empowerment under Section 6(1), an officer of one administration could not issue proceedings under the other enactment in the situations examined.

Used for: The leading authority for the cross empowerment objection.

Took the view that the administrative allocation of taxpayers and the scheme of the Act permitted the proceedings, notwithstanding the absence of a specific notification.

Used for: The contrary view; disclose it when pressing the objection.

Restrained parallel proceedings by the state and central authorities on the same subject matter for the same period, applying Section 6(2)(b).

Used for: Where two authorities are examining the same issue for the same year.

Examined the scope of an intelligence investigation running alongside state proceedings and the limits of Section 6(2)(b) on the same subject matter.

Used for: Where an investigation and an audit cover the same ground.

Section 16(2)(c) was upheld against constitutional challenge; the condition that tax be actually paid to the Government is within legislative competence.

Used for: Read before attacking 16(2)(c) itself; the fight is on its enforcement, not its existence.

Where the supplier had not remitted tax, the recipient could not be proceeded against without examining the supplier; the orders were quashed and the matter remitted with a direction to examine the seller.

Used for: The Madras line on proceeding against the supplier first.

Blocking under Rule 86A without recording reasons and without communicating them to the taxpayer was set aside.

Used for: Rule 86A blocking by portal entry alone.

Blocking of credit under Rule 86A must be preceded by the formation of an opinion on material and the reasons must be furnished on request.

Used for: Companion authority on communicated reasons.

Rule 86A blocking cannot continue beyond one year and the department cannot indirectly extend it.

Used for: Blocking beyond the statutory year.

Credit on capital goods claimed in the return within the outer time limit could not be denied merely because the invoice related to an earlier period.

Used for: Section 16(4) applied to the date of the return, not the date of the invoice.

Interest under Section 50 is not payable where the tax was deposited in the electronic cash ledger before the due date even though the return was filed later; the deposit is payment to the Government.

Used for: Interest demands where cash sat in the ledger before the due date.

Interest under Section 50 is payable on the net cash liability and not on the gross liability inclusive of credit, for the period before the proviso was inserted.

Used for: Gross versus net interest for early periods.

An unsigned assessment order is no order in the eye of law; the defect is not curable by later signature.

Used for: Where the DRC-07 or the order bears no signature or authentication.

An order that does not bear the signature of the issuing officer is invalid; the rules require authentication.

Used for: Companion authority on unsigned orders.

A single show cause notice bunching several financial years was held to be impermissible; limitation and quantification are year specific.

Used for: Bunched multi year notices.

A consolidated notice covering multiple years was set aside, each year requiring its own notice under Section 73.

Used for: Companion authority from Karnataka.

Uploading a notice under a portal tab the taxpayer would not ordinarily see, without any other communication, did not amount to effective service; the order passed without a hearing was set aside.

Used for: Portal service under the additional notices tab.

A show cause notice must be issued before an order under Section 73; the intimation in DRC-01A is not a substitute.

Used for: Orders passed directly on a DRC-01A.

A payment made in DRC-03 during search proceedings was held not to be voluntary and the department was directed to refund it.

Used for: Coerced search time payments.

Reversal of credit compelled during a search was held involuntary; the amount was directed to be restored with interest.

Used for: Coerced reversals during investigation.

Deposits made during search in the early hours, without any determination, were not voluntary; the department was directed to return them with interest.

Used for: The timing of a DRC-03 as evidence of coercion.

A refund application filed within time cannot be treated as time barred merely because a deficiency memo was issued and the fresh application fell outside the period.

Used for: The limitation reset problem after RFD-03.

Where no deficiency memo was issued within the prescribed period, the application must be treated as complete and the refund processed with interest.

Used for: Applications left pending without acknowledgement or memo.

Interest is payable on delayed refund of integrated tax on exports from the expiry of sixty days from the shipping bill date.

Used for: Interest on export refunds processed late.

Refund of integrated tax on exports could not be withheld on the ground that higher duty drawback had been claimed.

Used for: Drawback based refund holds.

Followed Amit Cotton Industries; the drawback claim was not a bar to the IGST refund on exports.

Used for: Companion authority.

Rule 96(10) restricting IGST refund where specified benefits had been availed on inputs was examined and relief granted on the facts.

Used for: Rule 96(10) restrictions on export refunds.

A unit in a special economic zone was held entitled to claim refund of unutilised credit distributed to it, the circular to the contrary notwithstanding.

Used for: Refund claims by SEZ units on distributed credit.

Where the portal did not permit filing of a refund claim in the correct category, the taxpayer could not be denied the refund for a technical reason.

Used for: Portal category errors on refund applications.

Refund of accumulated credit on account of an inverted duty structure could not be denied merely because the input and output fell under the same tariff heading.

Used for: Same heading inverted structure cases.

Where the e-way bill was produced before the seizure order was passed, the goods could not be seized and no penalty was leviable.

Used for: E-way bill produced at the roadside before seizure.

A transporter's failure to fill Part B, where the goods and documents otherwise matched, was a technical breach not warranting seizure and the penalty was set aside.

Used for: Part B omissions on otherwise matched consignments.

Expiry of the e-way bill by a few hours, with no discrepancy in the goods and no intent to evade, did not justify penalty under Section 129.

Used for: Short expiries with matched goods.

A minor error in the e-way bill with no possible revenue loss attracts only the nominal penalty contemplated by the circular, not proceedings under Section 129.

Used for: Applying Circular 64/38/2018 at the appellate level.

Revocation of cancelled registrations permitted on terms notwithstanding expiry of the statutory period, on filing returns and paying dues.

Used for: Revocation after the window has closed.

Cancellation of registration is a serious consequence affecting livelihood and cannot be ordered on a template notice without reasons.

Used for: Template cancellation orders.

Recovery initiated within the three month period under Section 78 without recorded reasons was set aside.

Used for: Premature recovery.

Where the taxpayer had filed an appeal with the pre deposit, recovery proceedings could not continue; the garnishee notice was set aside.

Used for: Recovery in breach of Section 107(7).

The power to seize under Section 67 extends to cash found during a search where it is relevant to the proceedings, on the facts before the Court.

Used for: Cash seizure in searches; contrast the Delhi line.

Cash and valuables not forming part of stock in trade cannot be seized under Section 67(2), which is confined to goods liable to confiscation and documents useful for proceedings.

Used for: The contrary and more recent view on cash seizure.