Supreme Court Seeks Revenue Explanation On Digitisation Of Missing GST Files In Bengal Cold Rollers Case

The Supreme Court has sought an explanation from the Revenue regarding the digitisation of 14 files seized in a GST investigation that are now stated to be missing in the case of Bengal Cold Rollers Pvt. Ltd.

The taxpayer argued that the absence of the original files affected its ability to establish the genuineness of transactions in pending GST adjudication proceedings.

A Bench of Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice K.V. Viswanathan noted the Revenue's stand that although the original physical files were missing, all the documents had already been digitised and supplied to the taxpayer in a pen drive.

“We want to know on which date these 14 files seized in physical form were digitized and in what manner,” the Court said.

The Court directed the Revenue to file an affidavit from a responsible officer explaining the digitisation exercise and to produce an index of the digitised documents.

The dispute stems from GST proceedings involving business records seized from the company during a departmental investigation.

The dispute before the Supreme Court centres on 14 seized files that are now missing. The taxpayer said the absence of those records prejudiced its defence in adjudication proceedings for multiple assessment years and affected its ability to establish the genuineness of transactions.

The matter reached the Supreme Court after the Telangana High Court recorded the State's assurance that the missing original files would not be relied upon in adjudication proceedings. The High Court said adjudication could continue on the basis of other available material with the department.

The matter will be heard next on May 13, 2026.

For Petitioner: Senior Advocate Balbir Singh, Advocate Karan Sachdev, Advocate Sumit Khadaria, Advocate Vedant Kholi, Advocate-on-Record Rahul Gupta, Advocate Disha Jain, Advocate Parvati Nambiar, Advocate-on-Record Devi Venkata Srikar Pagadala

For Respondent: Additional Solicitor General N. Venkataraman, Senior Advocate S. Niranjan Reddy, Advocate-on-Record Krishna Dev Jagarlamudi, Advocate Vishnu Kanth Mundada, Advocate Arpit Kumar Mishra, Advocate Shadab Azhar, Advocate-on-Record Rahul Gupta