The Calcutta High Court has set aside an order rejecting a company’s application for GST registration after finding that the tax authority had checked the Kolkata Municipal Corporation portal to verify a trade licence issued by the Rishra Gram Panchayat in Hooghly district.
The bench of Justice Partha Sarathi Sen directed the authority to reconsider the application after giving the company’s authorised representative a fair opportunity of hearing and to pass a reasoned order.
Buy Now: 160+ GST E-Magazine September 2026
The bench fixed a mandatory deadline of 30 working days for completing the exercise, calculated from communication of the court’s order along with the writ petition and necessary annexures.
The petitioner/assessee challenged the rejection of its GST registration application.
During the hearing, the company’s counsel referred to its certificate of incorporation issued through the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and its trade licence issued by the Rishra Gram Panchayat. Counsel also submitted that the company was registered on the “Shilpa Sathi” portal.
According to the submissions recorded in the judgment, the registration application had been rejected because the company’s details could not be found on the Kolkata Municipal Corporation portal and the uploaded trade licence did not match the information available on that portal.
The company argued that this verification was misplaced: its trade licence had been issued by the Rishra Gram Panchayat, making the relevant Panchayat portal the appropriate source for verification.
The company contended that the authority had failed to appreciate the identity of the body that issued its trade licence. It sought quashing of the rejection order and a direction requiring the authority to grant GST registration.
The Government Pleader representing the State submitted that the authority could be directed to consider the company’s request in light of the statements made in the writ petition and the documents annexed to it.
After examining the material placed before it, the court noted that the authority had checked the Kolkata Municipal Corporation portal even though the company’s certificate of enlistment or trade licence had been issued by the Rishra Gram Panchayat.
The court also recorded that the company was incorporated with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and registered on the Shilpa Sathi portal.
In these circumstances, the court set aside the June 15 rejection order and directed the authority to undertake a fresh consideration. The central issue was the rejection of the application on the basis of a mismatch with a portal belonging to a different local authority from the one that had issued the licence.
The court directed the authority to treat a copy of the writ petition as the company’s representation. It must give the company’s authorised representative a fair chance of hearing and pass a reasoned order in accordance with law.
The resulting decision must be communicated to the company forthwith.
The entire exercise must be completed within 30 working days from communication of the server copy of the court’s order, together with the writ petition and all necessary annexures. The court expressly described this time limit as “peremptory and mandatory”.
It also permitted the company’s advocate-on-record to communicate the server copy and directed the authority to act on it.
While the rejection order was quashed, the court did not direct the immediate grant of GST registration.
The court expressly clarified that the court had not examined the merits of the company’s registration application. All issues concerning its eligibility were left open for adjudication by the authority.
Membership Required to Access Case Details & Order Copy
To view the complete Case Details and Download Order Copy, you must have an active membership. Please subscribe to continue.
Read More: Omnibus Approval for Multiple Years Can’t Sustain Search Tax Assessments: Delhi High Court
