1. The petitioner is before this Court seeking direction against the respondent no.1 to restore the registration of the petitioner under the Goods and Service Tax Act.

2. This petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India is preferred by the petitioner company, which is a private limited company duly registered in Goods and Service Tax Act. Its principal place of business is at Vadodara and is having GSTIN as 24AABCN5901B1Z4. The said company is engaged in the business of manufacturing and selling of chemicals from the year 2002.

3. According to the petitioner on 25th October, 2019 it acquired a lease hold rights for plot at GIDC, Bharuch. As the pandemic due to Covid-19 virus has affected the businesses, it also had created a negative impact on the petitioner’s business, therefore, chose to transfer the lease hold rights on the property to other person and shut the business. Accordingly, it was implemented on 3^rd December, 2020 and the property had been transferred to M/s. Khyati Speciality Chemicals Pvt. Ltd., for the consideration cost of ₹ 4,31,00,000/-. It is the case of the petitioner that inadvertently it had applied for cancellation of registration u/s 29 of the CGST Act on account of discontinuation of the business. On the very same day i.e. 3rd April, 2021, the order of cancellation was issued by the respondent no.1 in Form GST REG-19, wherein the registration of the petitioner under the GST was cancelled with effect from 31st March, 2021. According to the petitioner, he did not have business for many months and therefore, the returns for respective months were filed as NIL returns. The appeal was attempted to be filed online against the order of cancellation of GST so that it could discharge the tax liability. Since his registration was cancelled by himself, he was not allowing any appeal to be preferred. Thus, the self cancellation of registration had debarred him from applying online. Thereafter, he could do it manually under Section 107 of the CGST Act in Form of APL-01 on 10th August, 2021.

4. The personal hearing since has not been received as respondent no.2 had informed that cannot take any action till the appeal will be filed electronically through GST Portal. He sent reminders on 13th August, 2021 and 18th August, 2021. According to the petitioner both these communications dated 13th August, 2021 and 18th August, 2021 were not been replied to. The petitioner has also preferred an appeal as online appeal was not been permitted. According to him there is no number given to the said appeal. Section-107 of CGST Act provides for appeal to the authority, whenever the person is aggrieved by any decision or order passed under this Act or the State Goods and Services Tax Act or the Union Territory Goods and Services Tax Act. He placed reliance upon the decision in case of Bhawani Textile through Proprietor Jayesh Soni Vs. Assistant Commissioner in Special Civil Application no.16422 of 2020.

5. Notice returnable forthwith. Ms. Mehta, learned AGP waives service of notice on behalf of the respondent nos.1 and 2. At our request, Mr. Lodha, learned advocate waives service of notice on behalf of the respondent no.3.

6. On hearing the learned advocates for both the sides and also having regard to the material, which has been placed before this Court, it is quite clear that there has been a self cancellation of registration on the part of the petitioner, which has made him ineligible for online appeal, which otherwise is permissible under Section 107 of the CGST Act. Section 30 also provides for revocation of cancellation of registration for which according to the petitioner the necessary communication have already provided to the authority concerned. The difficulty on the part of the petitioner is that the petitioner if is not allowed to rectify the return in the form of GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B on or before the due date of filing of the return under Section 39 of the CGST Act, the recipient will not be in a position to avail the input tax credit even though the taxes on such transactions have already been paid to the Government by Chalan dated 23rd August, 2021. The time limit is getting over by 30th September, 2021 & hence, this petition has been preferred with the following prayers :

A. To respondent no.1 to restore the GST registration of the petitioner in a time bound manner and allow the petitioner to rectify the return filed u/s 37 and 39 of the CGST Act.

OR ALTERNATIVELY

to direct the respondent no.2 to dispose the appeal filed against the impugned order dated 03.04.2021 on merits of the case.

B. to respondent no.3 to provide technical assistance for giving effect to the direction of the Hon’ble Court in case there is any technical difficulty being faced by the respondent no.2 in following the direction of the Hon’ble Court.

C. to issue order(s), direction(s), writ(s) or any other relief(s) as this Hon’ble Court deems fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case and in the interest of justice;

D. to award costs of and incidental to this application be paid by the respondent;

7. Noticing the short time before the redressal is necessary as has been made-out on account of the provisions of the CGST, and as the appeal is already filed physically, number which have not been given nor is reply to the communication has been made by the petitioner, we direct as follows :

(1) Let the request of the petitioner made by way of two communications dated 13th August, 2021 and 18th August, 2021 be replied to which is for the purpose of revocation of the self cancellation of registration made by the petitioner;

(2) In alternative : That the respondent no.2 shall dispose of the appeal bearing in mind the time line of 30th September, 2021, which would not permit utilisation of input tax credit beyond the period of one year;

(3) In the eventuality of giving technicality, the respondent no.2 shall guide in writing to enable the petitioner to prefer the appeal online within a short period of two weeks.

8. With the above directions, this petition stands disposed of. In the event of any non-compliance in the stipulated time period, the petitioner shall be at liberty to approach this Court for the revival of this matter.

9. This Court has chosen not enter into the merits of the matter on account of the pendency of the appeal as the request on the part of the petitioner all along has been for expeditious response on the part of the respondents.

10. Copy of this order shall also be given to the learned AGP for its onwards communication. Direct service is permitted.