The Madras HighCourt has set aside the cancellation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) registration and held that the petitioner had genuine reasons for failing to file returns due to a slowdown in their business. The Court also imposed ₹10,000 to be paid by the assessee to set aside the impugned order and ordered certain other conditions to be fulfilled.

The petitioner AGN Lorry Service is a registered taxpayer under the GST enactments, and they have been filing the GST returns regularly up to the Financial Year (FY) 2022-23.

The petitioner challenged the cancellation order issued by the Commercial Tax Officer for non-filing of GST returns for six months. The cancellation was informed by a Show Cause Notice (SCN) and was uploaded on the GST portal.

The petitioner submitted that due to a slowdown in business operations, it could not file returns from July 2021 to June 2022, and also highlighted that the SCN was uploaded in the GST portal, even without serving a physical copy to the assessee. The assessee was not aware of the same, and hence could not file its reply.

The petitioner approached the High Court for the restoration of its registration, as the time limit for filing an application for revocation of cancellation and for filing an appeal had expired.

The respondent authority argued that the revocation of the cancellation of registration will be considered only upon payment of all dues and filing of all returns.

The Single Bench comprising Justice Krishnan Ramasamy held that the petitioner’s explanation for non-compliance was genuine and observed that the delay was due to a business slowdown. The Court ordered that the cancellation be set aside subject to fulfillment of specific conditions.

The Court ordered that any default made with the conditions would not be entertained and would lead to consequences.

Accordingly, the writ petition was allowed with no costs.

The Petitioner was represented by P.V.Sudakar, while K.V. Vasanthamala represented the Revenue.