JUDGMENT

(Prayer: Writ Petitions filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, for issuance of a Writ of Certiorari, calling for the records on the files of the 3rd respondent in 33BAMPK4409C1Z2/2017- 2018, 2018-2019 dated 10.07.2020 and quash the same.)

Common Order:

1. The petitioner has challenged the respective Assessment Orders in these writ petitions for the Assessment Years 2017-18 and 2018-19. There is difference in the ITC claimed by the petitioner in its GSTR-2B and the information captured in the GSTR-2A as compared to the GSTR 1 of the supplier for the respective Assessment years. The demand has been workout as Rs.8,21,123/- and Rs.3,53,519/- for the Assessment Year 2017-18 and Assessment Year 2018-19 respectively.

2. On behalf of the petitioner, the learned counsel for the petitioner would submit that the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs had issued a clarification on 04.09.2018 bearing Circular No.125/44/2019- GST, wherein paragraph No.2.3 clarified as follows:

“ 2.3. In view of the difficulties being faced by the claimants of refund, it has been decided that the refund claim shall be accompanied by a print-out of Form GSTR-2A of the claimant for the relevant period for which the refund is claimed. The proper officer shall rely upon Form GSTR-2A as an evidence of the accountal of the supply by the corresponding supplier in relation to which the input tax credit has been availed by the claimant. It may be noted that there may be situations in which Form GSTR-2A may not contain the details of all the invoices relating to the input tax credit availed, possibly because the supplier's Form GSTR-1 was delayed or not filed. In such situations, the proper officer may call for the hard copies of such invoices if he deems it necessary for the examination of the claim for refund. It is emphasized that the proper officer shall not insist on the submission of an invoice (either original or duplicate) the details of which are present in Form GSTR-2A of the relevant period submitted by the claimant.”

3. The learned counsel for the petitioner has also placed reliance on the press release of the Government of India dated 18.10.2018. The relevant portion from the said Circular reads as under:

''4. It is clarified that the furnishing of outward details in Form GSTR-1 by the corresponding supplier(s) and the facility to view the same in Form GSTR-2A by the recipient is in the nature of taxpayer facilitation and does not impact the ability of the taxpayer to avail ITC on self-assessment basis in consonance with the provisions of Section 16 of the Act. The apprehension that ITC can be availed only on the basis of reconciliation between Form GSTR-2A and Form GSTR-3B conducted before the due date for filing of return in Form GSTR-3B for the month of September, 2018 is unfounded as the same exercise can be done thereafter also.''

4. The learned counsel for the petitioner has also placed reliance on another clarification vide Circular dated 18.11.2019 bearing Circular No.125/44/2019-GST. A specific reference was made to para 36 which reads as under:

''36. Applicants of refunds of unutilized ITC i.e. refunds pertaining to items listed at (a), (c) and (e) in para 3 above, shall have to upload a copy of Form GSTR-2A for the relevant period (or any prior or subsequent period(s) in which the relevant invoices have been auto-populated) for which the refund is claimed. The proper officer shall rely upon FORM GSTR-2A as an evidence of the accountal of the supply by the corresponding supplier(s) in relation to which the input tax credit has been availed by the applicant. Such applicants shall also upload the details of all the invoices on the basis of which input tax credit has been availed during the relevant period for which the refund is being claimed, in the format enclosed as Annexure – B along with the application for refund claim. Such availment of ITC will be subject to restriction imposed under sub-rule (4) in rule 36