Writ Benefit can’t be extended to Indolent Persons who sleep over their Rights and Duties

Case covered:

 M/s Jagadamba Hardware Stores

Versus

Union of India Through Deptt. of Central Revenue

Facts of the case:

Brief facts which led to the filing of the present writ petition is that, the petitioner is a Trader dealing in Pipes, Container Tanks, Pumps, Hardware Goods and Paints, etc. and falls within the definition of a trader under Goods and Service Tax Act (in short, the GST Act). The said GST Act came into force w.e.f. 01.07.2017. Under Section 140(3) of the GST Act, the petitioner was entitled to avail input tax credit. In order to avail the input tax credit under Rule 117 of the Central Goods and Service Tax Rules, 2017, the petitioner was to submit a declaration electronically in form GST TRAN-1 duly signed on the common portal. When the rules were framed, the said TRAN-1 was to be filled by the traders by 30.09.2017. Later on, the time was extended till 30.11.2017 and then it was further extended till 27.12.2017. 

Observations of the court:

Another aspect that requires to be borne in mind is that the relief sought for by the petitioner cannot be extended to those cases where the assessee defaults in not filling up of TRAN-1 even within the extended period up till 27.12.2017. The petitioner also failed to establish having approached any of the officers in the department, nor is there any proof in his possession. There is also no document to show any correspondence made with any of the officers in the department in this regard. The writ benefit cannot be extended to such indolent persons who sleep over their rights and duties without any plausible explanation and justification and now at the belated stage woke up from slumber and is trying to get relief from the High Court without any bonafide ground.

All the aforesaid fact compels this court to draw an inference that the petitioner had in fact never tried to fill TRAN-1 within the stipulated period or within the extended period and also was not able to take advantage of circular dated 03.04.2018 if at all if he had bonafide tried to fill TRAN-1.

For all the aforesaid reasons, this court is of the opinion that no strong case is made out by the petitioner for issuance of any sort of writ to the respondents. The writ petition fails and is accordingly rejected.

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