The Delhi High Court has ordered that biometric-based Aadhaar authentication must be implemented before issuing any Goods and Services Tax (GST) registrations. This decision comes in response to ongoing issues with the use of stolen or forged Permanent Account Number (PAN) and Aadhaar information to secure fraudulent registrations. The court’s directive aims to strengthen the verification process and combat tax fraud effectively.
It was disclosed that biometric AADHAR based authentication has been made mandatory for the GST Registration. “Minister of State in the Ministry Of Finance, while answering the question on fraudulent GST Registration has disclosed in the Rajya Sabha that in the year 2023-2024, there were 2800 fraudulent GST Registrations obtained by using stolen or frozen PAN/ AADHAR details involving detection of Rs.15,085 Crores of tax evasion. In the year 2024-2025, the number of fraudulent GST Registrations were 1654 and tax evasion of Rs.13109 Crores was detected. The court passed the order in a petition filed by a woman who alleged that fraudulent GST registrations had been created by third parties using her PAN and Aadhaar details, resulting in the siphoning off of over ₹ 4.46 crore from her savings account with Punjab National Bank.
It appears that despite passage of more than one year, the statement given by the minister on the floor of the house has not been fully implemented, resulting in continuous fake GST Registration obtained using stolen or frozen PAN/ AADHAR details,” the court said.
However, after no action was taken, she approached the high court seeking directions for an effective investigation. She lodged complaints with the concerned GST authorities in March 2026.
It was her case that, upon inquiry, the bank informed her that it had received a purported GST notice seeking payment of the said amount to a GST authority.
