The main legal point established in the judgment is that unutilized input tax credit is a vested right and property, and should not be denied on procedural or technical grounds.

JUDGMENT

Bechu Kurian Thomas, J.

Appellant is aggrieved by the direction of the learned Single Judge to the IT Redressal Committee of the GST Council to consider petitioner’s request for the transition of unavailed input tax credit in accordance with law.

2. The writ petition was filed by the respondent herein, seeking a direction for credit of the input tax balance lying in the writ petitioner’s CENVAT Credit Ledger as on 30-06-2017 to its Electronic Credit Ledger under the GST regime. It was pleaded that, to avail the transitional benefit of transfer of unavailed CENVAT credit to the electronic credit ledger under the GST regime, the writ petitioner had attempted to file GST TRAN-1 Form on 26-09-2017, as per Ext.P3, though without success. Further attempts also ended in failure resulting in the writ petitioner unable to take credit of the input tax balance lying in its CENVAT credit ledger as on 30.6.2017 to the electronic credit ledger. Petitioner had received the communication “processed with error” while attempting to submit TRAN-1 Form and thereafter a complaint was sent by email to helpdesk@gst.gov.in. It was alleged that there was no reply and hence the writ petition was filed.

3. A statement was filed on behalf of respondents 5 and 6 pointing out that the attempt of the writ petitioner was to subvert the statutory limitation and that as per Rule 117 of the CGST Rules 2017, the electronic filing of Form TRAN-1 ought to have been done within the stipulated period of 90 days from 21-07-2017. It was further stated that, even though the last date for filing of the form was extended from time to time, the present attempt was highly belated. It was further stated that there was nothing on record to suggest that throughout the period from 01-07-2017 to 27-12-2017, petitioner had made any effort to file the TRAN-1 declaration.

4. As mentioned earlier, the learned Single Judge disposed of the writ petition directing the IT Redressal Committee of the GST Council to take a call on the writ petitioner's request after taking into consideration the provisions under section 140 of the Central Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017 within a period of 45 days from the date of receipt of the judgment after affording an opportunity of hearing.

5. We have heard Adv.P.R.Sreejith, learned Senior Standing Counsel for the appellants as well as Adv.A.Kumar on behalf of the respondent.

6. It is seen from the statement filed by the respondents that there was an IT-related glitch that was noticed by the Department. The said technical glitch prevented bonafide attempts to comply with the process of filing forms or returns all over the country. It was for this purpose that a Redressal Committee was formed. On a perusal of Ext.P3, it is seen that petitioner had, in fact, emailed to the help desk at GST along with the screen shot of the error pointed out, requesting their assistance to complete the filing process. Ext.P3 email is dated 26-09-2017. In view of Ext.P3, the statement of the appellant that there was nothing on record to suggest that the petitioner had made efforts to file the declaration between the period 01-07-2017 to 27-12-2017 is not entirely correct.

7. Under section 140 of the CGST Act, registered persons are eligible to carry forward unutilized CENVAT credit and credit of duties or taxes paid on inputs/capital goods. No time limit is specified under the said provision to carry forward unutilized credit. However Rule 117 of CGST Rules provide for a period of 90 days from the appointed day, i.e, 01-07-2017. This period was extended till 27-12-2017 and thereafter by Rule 117(1A) the Commissioner's were given the power to extend the time till 31.08.2020.

8. It is significant to note that the statute does not provide for any provision for lapsing of unutilized input tax credit for non filing of TRAN-1. The input tax credit is required by law to be credited to the electronic credit ledger of an assessee. Failure to credit the input tax credit is an infr