The Supreme Court has ordered a brief affidavit from the GST department to explain the process by which 14 seized physical files belonging to a taxpayer were allegedly digitised after the originals went missing during the department’s proceedings.
The bench of Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice K.V. Viswanathan requested the Revenue to disclose the date and method of the digitisation process and to provide an index of the digitised documents
During the hearing, senior advocate Balbir Singh, representing the taxpayer, argued that the absence of the 14 seized files significantly harmed the taxpayer’s ability to prove the authenticity of its transactions with buyers. The applicant claimed that documents contained in the missing files were essential for effectively defending itself in the adjudication proceedings.
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Additional Solicitor General N. Venkataraman, appearing for the Revenue, specified that although the 14 physical files were admittedly missing, the department had earlier digitised the seized records and supplied the digital copies of the applicant via a pen drive. He also mentioned that the Telangana High Court, in a previous order on December 12, 2025, had recorded the statement of the State Tax Department that the missing original files shall not be relied upon during adjudication proceedings.
The Supreme Court directed paragraph 5 of the Telangana High Court’s previous order, wherein the State Tax authorities had mentioned that the originals of the missing files were not present with the Department, and thus shall not put reliance during adjudication. However, the Department proposed to proceed based on the remaining files that had already been supplied to the applicant.
The Apex Court stated that the grievance of the applicant for the reliance on missing original documents seems to have been addressed to some extent, as adjudication proceedings shall continue only on the grounds of available materials, while ensuring due chance of hearing to the taxpayer as per the Telangana GST Act, 2017.
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However, the Bench stated that an issue is still there, i.e., the digitisation of the missing files. The Court mentioned that it wanted an explanation of the exact date when the physical files were digitised and the case in which the digitisation exercise was performed. As per that, the court asked the ASG to submit a short affidavit from an officer who can elaborate on the process and place on record the index of documents that were digitised.
Now the case has been posted for further hearing on May 13, 2026.
| Case Title | M/S. Bengal Cold Rollers Private Limited Versus The Assistant Commissioner (St) & Ors. |
| Case No. | WP No. 6668/2026 |
| For Petitioner | Mr. Balbir Singh, Sr. Adv. |
| For Respondent | Mr. N. Venkataraman, ASG |
| Supreme Court | Read Order |
