E-way bill clerical error cannot sustain penalty absent tax evasion intent under the Uttar Pradesh GST framework.

Penalty under Section 129 of the Uttar Pradesh Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 was held unsustainable where goods were supported by invoices, bilty documents and e-way bills, and the only defect was a wrong place of supply in four e-way bills. The Court treated the error as clerical, noting that the incorrect address was the petitioner's registered office, the remaining documents showed the correct destination, and the mistake appeared to arise from auto-population in the e-way bill system. As there was no material indicating an intention to evade tax, the Court distinguished cases involving absent, expired or wholly non-disclosing e-way bills and granted relief to the petitioner.

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Issues: Whether penalty under Section 129 of the Uttar Pradesh Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 could be sustained where four e-way bills contained a wrong place of supply, but the invoices, bilty documents and the remaining e-way bills contained the correct destination and there was no material indicating an intention to evade tax.

Analysis: The goods were accompanied by invoices, bilty documents and e-way bills, and the incorrect address appearing in four e-way bills was not an anonymous destination but the registered office of the petitioner. The correct destination was reflected in the invoices and bilty documents, and the mistake was attributed to auto-population of the place of supply in the e-way bill. On these facts, the error was treated as clerical or typographical rather than as a wholesale violation of the e-way bill regime. The Court distinguished cases involving expired or absent e-way bills or complete non-disclosure, and held that such situations could justify a presumption of tax evasion, unlike the present one.

Conclusion: Penalty under Section 129 of the Uttar Pradesh Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 was not sustainable, and the writ petition succeeded.

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