Facts of the Case

M/s Khan Brothers, a partnership firm resident at Bitandipur, P.S. Jandaha, District Vaishali, Bihar, holding GSTIN 10AARFK3344C1ZR, acting through its partner Mohammad Asharaf Alee, filed a writ petition before the High Court of Judicature at Patna against the Union of India (through the Commissioner, Central GST and Central Excise, Patna-II), the Assistant Commissioner (Adjudication and Enforcement), CGST and Central Excise, Patna-II, and the Assistant Commissioner and Superintendent, Central GST and Central Excise, Hajipur Range, Vaishali Division, challenging the cancellation of its GST registration under the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. While the petition was pending before the Division Bench, the department itself passed an order dated 11.12.2023 revoking the cancellation, and the matter was accordingly listed for a brief oral order on 13.12.2023.

Issues Involved

  1. Whether the writ petition survived for adjudication once the department revoked the cancellation of the petitioner's GST registration by its own order dated 11.12.2023.
  2. Whether any further relief or direction was required from the Court once the substantive grievance stood administratively resolved.

Petitioner's Arguments

  • The petitioner's underlying grievance, as reflected in the writ petition, was the cancellation of its GST registration, and the relief sought was that the cancellation be set aside or otherwise redressed so that the firm could resume normal GST compliance and business operations under its GSTIN.

Respondent's Arguments

  • No adversarial defence of the original cancellation is recorded in the order; instead, the Central GST authorities, acting on their own, passed an order dated 11.12.2023 revoking the cancellation, thereby addressing the petitioner's grievance administratively before the matter could be argued on merits before the Court.

Court Order/Findings

  • Noting that the cancellation of the petitioner's GST registration had already been revoked by the department's own order dated 11.12.2023, thereby redressing the petitioner's grievance, the Court found nothing further survived for adjudication in the writ petition.
  • The writ petition was closed on this short footing, without any independent finding on the legality or correctness of the original cancellation order, and without any further directions being necessary.

Important Clarification

Where the department itself revokes a GST registration cancellation during the pendency of a writ petition challenging that cancellation, the petition becomes infructuous and is simply closed on the footing that the grievance stands redressed, without the court examining the validity of the original cancellation order. This illustrates that administrative revocation, once granted, can moot writ proceedings even where the taxpayer never obtained a substantive ruling on the legality of the cancellation. It also underscores that a taxpayer aggrieved by cancellation of registration may often obtain faster relief by pursuing revocation under Section 30 alongside, or even in preference to, writ litigation, since departments frequently resolve such grievances administratively once the requisite compliance is demonstrated.

Sections Involved

  • Section 29 of the CGST Act, 2017 — empowers the proper officer to cancel GST registration on specified grounds, including non-compliance.
  • Section 30 of the CGST Act, 2017 — provides the mechanism for a registered person to apply for revocation of cancellation of registration, which was ultimately exercised by the department in this case.

Decision – In Favour of

The petition was closed as infructuous rather than decided on merits, but the underlying grievance — cancellation of GST registration — stood redressed administratively in the Assessee's favour when the department itself revoked the cancellation before the writ could be heard on merits. The Court recorded no independent finding on the legality of the original cancellation, so this cannot be treated as a substantive precedent, only as a record of administrative redressal.

Related Case Laws

No directly on-point case notes are currently published on this site.

Case Details

  • Court: High Court of Judicature at Patna
  • Case No.: Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No.16596 of 2023
  • CNR: Not available
  • Coram: Hon'ble the Chief Justice and Hon'ble Mr. Justice Rajiv Roy
  • Decision Date: 13 December 2023
  • Disposal Nature: Writ petition closed; registration cancellation revoked

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