The Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court has directed the restoration of a taxpayer’s cancelled GST registration, subject to completion of the requisite formalities, filing of returns and payment of taxes, penalty and interest within the stipulated period.
The Bench of Justice Sanjeev Kumar and Justice MA Chowdhary granted the conditional relief even though the taxpayer’s statutory appeal against the cancellation had been dismissed as time-barred. The Court expressly clarified that its order rested on the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case and did not decide the legal questions raised in the petition.
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The petitioner/assessee challenged the cancellation of his GST registration by the State Taxes Officer, Superintendent Circle, Kupwara, through an order.
He had first pursued the statutory remedy of appeal under Section 107(1) of the GST Act, 2017 before the Commissioner (Appeals). However, the appellate authority dismissed the appeal on January 27, 2026, on the ground that it was barred by limitation.
Following the dismissal, the petitioner approached the High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution, seeking a direction to the authorities to restore his registration.
Appearing for the petitioner, Advocate Qazi Ayaz submitted that the matter was fully covered by the High Court’s judgment in Umar Farooq v. UT of J&K and Others, WP(C) No. 1491/2025. Central Government Standing Counsel Dheeraj Nanda appeared for the respondents.
The Bench noted that similar cases had previously come before it in which restoration of registration had been directed subject to an undertaking to discharge tax liabilities, penalty and interest in accordance with the GST law.
The Court explained that those earlier orders had been passed on concessions by the respondents permitting restoration of the registration of defaulting dealers, provided they complied with the law by submitting returns and paying the outstanding dues.
After hearing the parties and examining the record, the Bench found the present case similar to those earlier matters.
The High Court directed the petitioner to approach the competent authority for restoration of his GST number within seven days from the date of the order.
The competent authority was directed to restore the GST number immediately, subject to completion of all requisite formalities.
The Court also directed the petitioner to file the returns and deposit the taxes and penalty, together with interest, within seven days. The relief therefore carried a strict compliance requirement, linking restoration to the taxpayer’s fulfilment of his statutory obligations.
The Bench expressly provided that failure to comply within the stipulated period would cause the High Court’s order to cease to operate, bringing the original cancellation order back into force.
The restoration direction was consequently conditional. The taxpayer was required to complete the formalities and meet the return-filing and payment requirements within the time allowed to retain the benefit of the order.
The High Court emphasised that it had granted relief on the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case and by following the approach adopted in earlier similar matters.
It specifically refrained from examining the legal issues raised by the parties and clarified that nothing in its order should be treated as an expression of opinion on any question of law arising in the petition.
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