Transitional GST credit cannot be denied for technical filing lapse where taxpayers reasonably relied on an official press release.

Transitional GST input tax credit could not be denied merely because Form GST TRAN-1 was not uploaded before the cut-off date, where the taxpayers had reasonably relied on an official press release indicating a later filing window. The Kerala High Court held that the petitioners were entitled to have their claims considered on merits, and that the genuineness of the credit claim could still be verified by the authorities. The impugned communications were quashed, and the respondents were directed to facilitate filing electronically or, if necessary, accept the form manually by the date fixed by the Court.

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Issues: Whether the petitioners, who could not upload Form GST TRAN-1 before the cut-off date, were entitled to be permitted to file the form electronically or manually and to have their transitional credit claim considered on merits.

Analysis: The petitioners had migrated from the VAT regime to the GST regime and sought to carry forward accumulated credit through the transitional mechanism. Although the system logs indicated that they had not attempted to log in before 27.12.2017, they had acted on a GST Council press release suggesting that the filing window remained open until 31.12.2017. The Court found that the petitioners had a valid basis to believe that filing was still available and that they should not be deprived of the substantive benefit of transition credit merely because of a technical filing requirement. The Court also accepted that the genuineness of the claim could still be verified by the respondents.

Conclusion: The petitioners were entitled to relief. The impugned communications were quashed and the respondents were directed to facilitate filing of Form GST TRAN-1 electronically or, if that was not possible, to accept it manually by the date fixed by the Court, without rejecting the claim merely because it was not filed before 27.12.2017.

Final Conclusion: Transitional credit under the GST regime could not be denied on a purely technical basis where the petitioners had acted on a reasonable basis arising from the official press release and sought to preserve their substantive entitlement.

Ratio Decidendi: A taxpayer should not be denied transitional input tax credit on the basis of a technical filing lapse where the delay was occasioned by a reasonable reliance on an official representation and the genuineness of the claim remains open to verification.

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