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Informist, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Delhi High Court has ordered that authorities across the country should not allow any goods and services tax registration without biometric Aadhaar-based authentication as fake GST registrations continue to be obtained using stolen or frozen Permanent Account Number and Aadhaar details. The court noted that in the financial year 2024-25 (Apr-Mar), the number of fraudulent GST registrations were 1,654 and tax evasion of INR 131.09 billion was detected. In FY24, 2,800 fraudulent GST registrations were obtained using stolen or frozen PAN or Aadhaar details and evasion of INR 150.85 billion was detected.

 

The court noted that the minister of state in the Union finance ministry, while answering a question in the Rajya Sabha on fraudulent GST registrations, had disclosed that biometric Aadhaar-based authentication has been made mandatory for registration. But despite more than a year having passed, it appears that the statement given by the minister on the floor of the House has not been fully implemented, resulting in continued fake GST registration, it said.

 

The court has been compelled to request the competent authorities to counter the situation, which is resulting in the loss of revenue to the government and harassment of innocents, a bench of Justice Anil Kshetarpal and Justice Shail Jain said. The authorities are expected to take the matter with all seriousness, it added, given that they have failed to draw the court's attention to any difficulty in making mandatory biometric Aadhaar-based authentication for GST registration. While directing the tax authorities to obey its order, the court granted them the liberty to file objections with respect to any practical difficulty in its implementation.

 

The court also asked the government to examine suggestions such as making facial recognition of an applicant mandatory for all registrations. The court will hear the case next on Sept. 22.

 

The case has its genesis from a petitioner moving the court alleging fraudulent GST registration by some other person using her PAN and Aadhaar details. The court noted that a similar case had come up earlier and said this points to rampant fraudulent registrations in the names of innocent persons, which would create a huge liability for those persons.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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