Delhi HC bars GST registration without biometric Aadhaar authentication

The Delhi High Court has ordered that Goods and Services Tax (GST) registration is no longer permissible without biometric-based Aadhaar authentication. A bench of Justices Anil Kshetarpal and Shail Jain passed the order on petitions alleging fraudulent GST registrations using the petitioners' PAN card and Aadhaar card numbers.

In the order passed on September 8, the bench observed that earlier, while answering a question on fraudulent GST registration in Parliament, the minister concerned disclosed that in 2023-2024, there were 2,800 fraudulent GST registrations involving Rs 15,085 crore of tax evasion, and that in 20242025, there were 1,654 fraudulent registrations and 13,109 crore of tax evasion were detected.

The bench said although it was also disclosed that biometric authentication through Aadhaar would be mandatory for GST registration, the statement had not yet been implemented, which resulted in continuous fake registrations using stolen or frozen PAN/Aadhaar details.