Section 29, 30 of the CGST Act, 2017 – Registration –-–-The petitioners challenged the cancellation of GST Registrations. The court observed that some of the petitioners have directly challenged the order of cancellation of GST registration passed under Section 29. All these petitioners had a remedy to file an application under section 30 for revocation of cancellation of the registration or to file an appeal before the Appellate Authority under Section 107. Some of the petitioners have exercised this option, however, the Original Authority has rejected their Appeals. Some of the petitioners have filed appeals against the orders, instead of choosing to file an application under section 30 and some of the appeals were rejected as they were filed beyond the time prescribed. The court observed that pursuant to the decision of the GST Council and the Notification issued make it clear that intention is to only facilitate and not to debar and de-recognised assesses from coming back into the GST fold. No useful purpose will be served by keeping these petitioners out of the bounds of GST regime other than to allow further leakage of the revenue and to isolate these petitioners from the main stream. Therefore, the impugned orders are liable to be quashed with few safeguards.

Held that:- The Hon’ble High Court allowed the Petitions subject to certain conditions. Directed the petitioners to file their returns for the period prior to the cancellation of registration. If any ITC has remained utilized, it shall not be utilised until it is scrutinized and approved by an appropriate or a competent officer of the Department. The respondents may impose such restrictions / limitation on petitioners as may be warranted to ensure that there is no undue passing of Input Tax Credit pending such exercise.