GST registration cancellation for curable defaults may be reversed where the taxpayer regularises returns and dues within time.

Where GST registration was cancelled for curable procedural defaults, the Calcutta HC held that substantive rights should not be defeated merely because the statutory appeal, including the grace period, had become time-barred. The writ petition was entertained despite the alternative remedy, as the cancellation rested on non-compliance capable of being remedied. The Court set aside the cancellation and appellate orders and directed the assessee to file the pending returns and pay the requisite tax, interest, fine and penalty within the stipulated time. On compliance, registration was to be restored; failing compliance, the benefit of the order would not apply.

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Issues: Whether the cancellation of GST registration and the appellate order rejecting the statutory appeal as time-barred should be interfered with, and whether the registration could be restored despite procedural defaults, subject to compliance with return filing and tax payments.

Analysis: The writ court entertained the petition notwithstanding the availability of an alternative statutory remedy, as the period for appeal including the grace period had expired and the cancellation was founded on curable procedural non-compliance. The Court held that such procedural lapses should not defeat substantive rights where the defects are capable of being remedied. It further relied on the settled approach that cancellation on procedural grounds should not foreclose restoration when the assessee is willing to regularise defaults and make the requisite payments.

Conclusion: The cancellation order and the appellate order were set aside and quashed. The petitioner was directed to file returns for the period of default and pay the requisite tax, interest, fine and penalty within the stipulated time, and upon such compliance the GST registration was to be restored; failing compliance, the benefit of the order would not enure to the petitioner.

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