JUDGMENT

[W.P(C) Nos. 31559/2019, 25891/2020, 26515/2021,5995/2022,]

In the present batch of writ petitions, challenge has been made to Sections 16(2)(c) and 16(4) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act and State Goods and Services Act, 2017.

Background:

2. It took 13 long years, i.e., 2004-2017, for Goods and Services Tax to finally arrive in India, and a new tax regime could see the light of the day with effect from 01.07.2017. The Kelkar Committee used the word ‘GST’ for the first time in a formal document, i.e., the Executive Summary of the Kelkar Committee report. The Kelkar Committee proposed that the Union and the States should concurrently tax the consumption of almost all goods and services in the economy, and it should be based on the principles of Value Added Tax (for short ‘the VAT’). All existing legislation taxing goods and services with cascading effects should be withdrawn. The GST would subsume existing indirect taxes including central excise and service tax.

2.1 ‘A White Paper on State-Level Value Added Tax’ (‘the white paper’) was published by the Empowered Committee of the State Finance Ministers on 17.01.2005. The ‘White Paper’ discussed features such as Input T