The ruling, which experts described as a landmark judgement, gives relief to many businesses who were fighting legal cases against the government over tax credits from the previous regime of excise duty and service tax that they could not avail of after the transition to GST.

The court has directed the government to allow for the filing of the relevant forms for a period of two months from 1 September, experts said. According to Abhishek Jain, tax partner at KPMG in India, this decision comes in light of the ongoing dispute wherein various taxpayers had contested that on account of technical glitches, these forms could not be filed in timely manner, and even otherwise their right to transition the credit cannot be denied to them.

"This is a golden opportunity for the industry players irrespective of whether they were a party to the writ petition or not, and all businesses should look at any pre-GST credit that was not duly transitioned, in light of this SC judgement," said Jain.

Experts said that the apex court order means that the relief applies to all assesses whether they have filed a writ petition or not and GSTN has to make sure there is no technical glitch during this period. Also, 90 days are given to officers thereafter to verify the claim of credit on merits and to pass the appropriate order. The opportunity of hearing also is to be granted and thereafter the credit should to reflect in the electronic credit ledger, they said.

"Hon'ble Supreme Court, in a seminal judgment upheld the principles of equity in transitional tax credit issue by allowing the vested right to be carried forward in GST returns. The judgment will now act as a precedence for thousands of cases pending before various high courts. Officers will be required to process these TRAN-1 applications in a time bound manner now," said advocate Abhishek A Rastogi, Partner at law firm Khaitan & Co.

An email sent to the finance ministry seeking comments for the story remained unanswered at the time of publishing.