O R D E R

1. This is yet another petition where the Petitioner is disabled from conducting its normal course of business and availing the Cenvat Credit/Input Tax Credit due to the prevalent glitch with the TRAN-1 form which is required to be filed online. The brief facts are that for the period ending on 30th June, 2017 the Petitioner had filed on 27th December 2017 an Input Tax Credit of eligible duty (CVD) of ₹ 1,00,67,087/-.

2. With the coming into force of the GST regime on 1st July, 2017 the Petitioner expected, and legitimately, that he would be able to carry forward the aforementioned Cenvat Credit/ITC.  The Petitioner states that after filing the the TRAN-1 Form on 27th December, 2017 online, the Petitioner noticed that the electronic account ledger did not reflect the entire amount of ₹ 1,00,67,087/- and instead only reflected credit of ₹ 6,54,978/- which consisted of ₹ 4,48,727/- paid on advance AMC as shown in the last service tax return, ₹ 94,941/- towards ‘Credit’ under column 7(a) of the form and ₹ 1,11,310/- towards ‘Credit’ under column 7(b), excluding ₹ 94,12,109/- towards the closing balance CENVAT credits of the last return filed in time under Service Tax. The TRAN-1 could not be filed before the said date on account of glitches in the portal.

3. It is stated thereafter that the Petitioner contacted the GST help desk, but did not receive concrete answers, and believing that this was a mere system error which would be corrected in due course of time, waited for around 2 months for the same. Thereafter, the Petitioner mailed written submissions to ‘[email protected]’ on 8th March 2018, followed by online complaints to the Self Grievance Redressal forum dated 22nd March, 2018 and 26th April, 2018. It is further submitted that subsequent to the Circular dated 3rd April, 2018 by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, the Petitioner submitted a letter dated 27th April 2018 to the jurisdictional Assessing Officer, SGST of the Petitioner. It is stated that the Petitioner also noticed that there were glitches arising in filing of form GST TRAN-1 in three other States excluding Delhi as well, and subsequently, the petitioner also submitted further letters dated 13th June, 2018 to the Assessing Officer, SGST as well as letter dated 8th August, 2018 to the Commissioner, GST. However, the Petitioner received no response from the Government and his issues were not resolved, as a result, it could not revise the TRAN-1 form as it was legally entitled to. The above representations have been enclosed with the petition. Reliance has also been placed on the order dated 22nd July 2019 in W.P(C) 3798/2019 M/s Bluebird Pure Pvt. Ltd. v. Union of India & Ors, wherein under similar circumstances, the Respondents were directed to either open the online portal to enable the Petitioner therein to file the revised TRAN-1 form or accept the manually filed TRAN-1 form with due corrections.

4. In the short affidavit filed on behalf of the Respondents, it is stated that the last date of the extended time period for filing of the GST TRAN-1 form, subsequent to the orders dated 21st September 2017, 28th October 2017 and 15th November 2017 under the CGST Rules, 2017, was the date on which the Petitioner filed its form i.e. 27th December, 2017. Similarly, the last extended date even for revision of the TRAN-1 form was only up till 27th December 2017. It is thus contended that even though the Petitioner realized that it had committed an inadvertent error in filing of the said form, such error was discovered only after the last date for filing of such TRAN-1 form was over. It is stated that the Petitioner only raised the said issue 2 months after filing the said form, and hence it is the Petitioner who failed to act within the time limit prescribed and is now maliciously trying to project its case as falling under the umbrella of system/technical glitches in the online portal. The said affidavit is however silent on whether the Petitioner’s case has been considered by the IT Grievance Redressal Committee constituted by the Respondents to look into similar complaints.

5. The Court has in several recent orders including order dated 13th May, 2019 in WP(C) No. 1280/2018 (Bhargava Motors vs. Union of India & Ors.) and order dated 29th July, 2019 in WP(C) No.13772/2018 (Uninav Developers Private Limited vs. Union of India & Ors.) directed the Respondents in similar circumstances to either re-open the portal to enable the Petitioners therein to again file the TRAN-I form electronically or to accept a manually filed TRAN-1 form. The Court has in those orders noted that the GST system is still in the ‘trial and error’ phase.

6. For the reasons explained in the abovementioned orders, the Court directs the Respondents in the present case also to either open the portal so as to enable the Petitioner to file the TRAN-1 electronically or to accept a manually filed TRAN-1 form on or before 13th September, 2019. The Petitioner’s claims thereafter be processed in accordance with law.

7. The petition is disposed of in the above terms.