The Supreme Court has stayed Rajasthan High Court order which was extended the deadline of GSTR-9 (GST Annual Return) and GSTR-9C (Reconciliation Statement).
In the matter of UOI vs Tax Bar Association, Supreme Court through its bench comprising of Justice R F Nariman and Justice Ravinder S Bhatt has refused to interfere in order as passed by Rajasthan High Court and also clarified that there would be no penal consequences for delayed filing due to problems of GSTN Server.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta stated that extension in due date requires entire modification in Software and therefore it creates ambiguity and chaos. Therefore, the Supreme Court said that no further extension would be given post 12th February 2020 through interim order.
Learned Counsel Mr Sanjay Jhanwar, Mr Rishabh Sancheti, Mr Prateek Gattani and Mr Rajat Sharma appearing for Respondents association demonstrated bottlenecks and technical errors at GSTN portal. Pursuant to which Ld. SG assured that no penal consequences shall be taken on account of delayed filing.
Further, Supreme Court directed the UOI to file a detailed reply to address the bottlenecks especially the lower capacity of the server of GSTN before High Court and the High Court to decide issue finally on the basis of facts without getting influenced by this ad-hoc order.
Earlier, the Rajasthan High Court had directed the GST Department to accept the filing of GSTR-9 and GSTR-9C till February 12th 2020 without late fees. The court after taking into consideration screenshots submitted by the Petitioner regarding the unsuccessful attempts of the tax professionals time and again during the extended period was satisfied that GSTN portal does not have the requisite capacity to handle the filing of pending returns within the deadline.
While Staying the Rajasthan High Court order, the Apex Court has said that, “We do not intend by this ad-hoc order to at all interfere with what the High Court may ultimately do on the facts of this case”.
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