The Principal Bench of the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT) has granted interim relief to taxpayers by directing all its registries to adopt a lenient approach while scrutinising appeal documents during the initial six months of its functioning. Registries have been instructed to raise only substantive defects affecting the merits of the case and not procedural or technical defects. The order also clarifies that documents generated through the GSTN system need not be certified, while scanned copies of physical documents filed with appeals must be duly signed. This measure aims to ease transitional difficulties faced by taxpayers and practitioners in the newly operationalised GSTAT.

The Order dated 20.01.2026 reads as “….the Registry of each Bench shall keep a lenient view during scrutiny of the appeal documents and raise defect of substance only rather than for defect of form, i.e. the defects not affecting the merit of the case shall not be raised, for an initial period of 6 months from the date of issuance of this order.”.

The Complete Order can be accessed at https://taxo.online/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/GSTAT-ORDER_20-01-2026.pdf