Transitional GST credit relief: portal glitches cannot defeat filing of TRAN-1 where credit is otherwise available.

Where transitional GST credit was otherwise available under Section 140(1) of the CGST Act, repeated difficulties in filing TRAN-1 on the common portal justified a remedial direction. The Court preferred not to resolve the precise filing error factually and instead protected the taxpayer from losing substantive credit because of portal glitches. It permitted TRAN-1 to be filed either by reopening the electronic portal or manually, ensuring the claim could be processed in accordance with law.

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Issues: Whether the petitioner should be permitted to file GST TRAN-1 electronically or manually so as to claim transitional credit under the GST regime.

Analysis: The claim related to transitional credit admittedly available in the petitioner's account under Section 140(1) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. The record showed repeated difficulties in filing TRAN-1 on the common portal, and the Court noted that similar portal glitches had been encountered in other cases. In those circumstances, the Court declined to go into a factual determination of the precise filing error and instead adopted a remedial approach to ensure that the petitioner was not deprived of the statutory credit.

Conclusion: The petitioner was entitled to an to file TRAN-1 either electronically by reopening of the portal or manually, and the request was allowed.

Final Conclusion: The decision preserved the petitioner's entitlement to transitional credit and directed a practical mechanism for filing and processing the claim in accordance with law.

Ratio Decidendi: Where transitional credit is otherwise available and portal-related difficulties prevent timely electronic filing, the Court may direct reopening of the portal or permit manual filing to avoid loss of substantive credit.

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