IMPORTANT POINT
The court established that a GST registration can only be cancelled based on a valid application, and erroneous cancellations due to technical issues must be rectified.

ORDER :

BHARGAV D. KARIA, J.

1. Heard learned advocate Mr.D.K. Trivedi for the petitioner and learned advocate Mr.P.Y. Divyeshvar for respondent Nos.3 and 4.

2. By this petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner has prayed for the following reliefs.

“C. Your Lordships may be pleased to issue writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ directing the respondent authorities to immediately revoke cancellation of GSTIN 24ADHPC7739X1ZU and immediately make the said GSTIN 24ADHPC7739C1ZU active so that the petitioner can avail credit of Input Tax paid on inputs and can pay Goods & Service Tax in regard to the output supplies, in accordance with law;

D. Your Lordships may be pleased to quash and set aside Order for cancellation of GSTIN 24ADHPC7739C1ZU (if any);

E. Your Lordships may be pleased to grant an ex-parte, ad interim order in favour of the petitioner herein in terms of prayer clause ‘C’ & ‘D’ hereinabove;

F. Your Lordships may be pleased to grant such other and further relief/(s) that may be deemed fit and proper in the interest of justice in favor of the Petitioner;

G. Your Lordships may be pleased to issue appropriate writ quashing and setting aside Order-in-Original No.03/GST/REG/GNR/YMR/2023-24 dtd. 25/04/2024 issued on 10/05/2024 (Annexure ‘T’);

H. Your Lordships may be pleased to issue appropriate writ quashing and setting aside Order-in-Original No.13/GST/REG/GNR/YMR/2023-24 dtd. 02/07/2024 issued on 02/07/2024 (Annexure ‘U’).”

3. The petitioner was registered with Commercial Tax Department vide Registration Certificate under Value Added Tax Act having Registration No.TIN-24060302136 prior to 01st July, 2017.

3.1 With effect from 01st July, 2017 Goods & Service Tax was introduced and various duties and taxes including Value Added Tax were subsumed in the GST.

3.2 As per the provisions of the Goods & Service Tax Act, 2017, assessees who have been registered under 11 statutes were required to migrate by filing migration form in two parts i.e. Part A and Part B.

3.3 The petitioner submitted application for migration and completed Part A of the migration form but Part B was left out.

3.4 The Respondent – GST Department issued a provisional registration No.24ADHPC7739C1ZU on 26th June, 2017. However, as the part B was left out, provisional registration certificate was cancelled.

3.5 The petitioner received two e-mails dated 23rd August, 2018 informing about temporary reference number being generated for application form of the petitioner and such application was submitted successfully. Thereafter, the petitioner was informed that application for new registration GST REG-01 was approved and GST No.24ADHPC7739C2ZT was allotted to the petitioner.

3.6 The petitioner, therefore, could not file return of income for the years 2017-18 and 2018-19. The petitioner had sent an e-mail dated 18th January, 2019 to the Deputy Commissioner and Nodal Officer (GST), Gandhinagar, requesting to do the needful so as to enable the petitioner to complete the Part B and complete the process of migration.

3.7 The petitioner received an e-mail dated 22nd January, 2019 from the GSTN informing about complete procedure for migration from old regime to GST regime.

3.8 As per the guidelines provided by the said e-mail, it was informed to the petitioner that if the tax payer receives a new GST number with different entity code in 13th and 14th character because of the previous record, the same should not be activated.

3.9 As per the procedure prescribed in the e-mail dated 22nd January, 2019, another GST No.24ADHPC7739C3ZS was generated to enable the petitioner for migration from old regime to GST regime.

3.10 It appears that by e-mail dated 25th January, 2019 the petitioner was informed that application for cancellation of registration and GST REG-16 dated 24th January, 2019 was given registration number as Application Reference Number (ARN) AA2401190528471.

3.11 The petitioner thereafter received e- mail dated 29th January, 2019 in