The Supreme Court has sought a short affidavit from the GST Department explaining the process through which 14 seized physical files belonging to a taxpayer were allegedly digitized after the originals went missing during departmental proceedings.
The bench of Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice K.V. Viswanathan directed the Revenue to disclose the date and manner in which the files were digitized and also furnish an index of the digitized documents.
During the hearing, senior advocate Balbir Singh, appearing for the assessee, argued that the absence of the 14 seized files severely prejudiced the taxpayer’s ability to establish the genuineness of its transactions with buyers. The petitioner contended that certain crucial documents contained in the missing files were necessary for effectively defending itself in the adjudication proceedings.
On the other hand, Additional Solicitor General N. Venkataraman, appearing for the Revenue, submitted that although the 14 physical files were admittedly missing, the Department had already digitized all the seized records and supplied the digital copies to the petitioner through a pen drive. He further pointed out that the Telangana High Court, in an earlier order dated December 12, 2025, had recorded the statement of the State Tax Department that the missing original files would not be relied upon during adjudication proceedings.
The Supreme Court referred specifically to paragraph 5 of the Telangana High Court’s earlier order, wherein the State Tax authorities had stated that the originals of the missing files were unavailable with the Department and therefore would not be relied upon during adjudication. However, the Department proposed to proceed on the basis of the remaining files that had already been supplied to the petitioner.
The Supreme Court observed that the petitioner’s grievance regarding reliance on missing original documents appeared to have been addressed to some extent because the adjudication proceedings would continue only on the basis of available materials, while ensuring due opportunity of hearing to the taxpayer in accordance with the Telangana GST Act, 2017.
However, the Bench noted that an important issue still survived regarding the digitization of the missing files. The Court stated that it wanted clarity on the exact date when the physical files were digitized and the manner in which the digitization exercise was carried out. Accordingly, the Court requested the ASG to file a short affidavit from a responsible officer explaining the entire process and also place on record the index of documents that were digitized.
The matter has now been posted for further hearing on May 13, 2026.
Case Details
Case Title: M/S. Bengal Cold Rollers Private Limited Versus The Assistant Commissioner (St) & Ors.
Citation: JURISHOUR-1126-SC-2026
Case No.: Special Leave to Appeal (C) No.12390/2026
Date: 05-05-2026
