A S BANKA ADVISORS

If your startup has moved its registered office, opened in a new state, or been reassigned between Central and State GST authorities, one question quietly hangs over any open dispute: what happens to the show cause notice, audit or appeal that was already running? For years the honest answer was “nobody is quite sure,” and that uncertainty was itself weaponised in litigation. CBIC Circular No. 255/01/2026-GST, dated 25 June 2026, ends the guesswork.

What the circular settles

GST registration is jurisdiction-linked. When you change your Principal Place of Business, you can move from the administrative control of one Commissionerate or State authority (the transferor jurisdiction) to another (the transferee jurisdiction). The grey area was never whether you could move. It was what happened to a half-finished proceeding when you did. Taxpayers routinely argued that a notice had become defective because the issuing officer no longer had jurisdiction. Officers were unsure who should carry an adjudication to its conclusion. Circular 255/2026 draws a clean line, and it is worth understanding as three plain rules.

The three operative rules

1. Prior proceedings stay valid. Any investigation, audit, show cause notice under Section 73 or 74, adjudication order, review or appeal validly initiated by the old authority before migration remains legally valid despite the transfer. Migration is not a reset button.
2. The new officer takes over. Once migration takes effect, the transferee authority handles every future stage, picking up from the exact point the case stood at on the migration date. Your reply, personal hearing, adjudication order, recovery and appellate litigation now sit with the new jurisdiction.
3. The old officer cannot restart. If a fresh issue surfaces after migration, the transferor authority must not initiate new proceedings. It must communicate the information to the transferee authority, which alone is competent to act. This is the taxpayer-protective limb: you will not be chased by two officers at once.

Why this matters for founders

This is not a change in the law. It is a clarificatory circular, a binding administrative instruction telling field officers how the existing CGST Act already applies. The legal logic is straightforward: proper officers are cross-empowered under the Act, and a proceeding is not rendered void merely because the officer exercising jurisdiction changes. For a growing company, the practical consequence is what counts. Office relocations, new state registrations and restructurings all trigger migration, and each one used to carry a nagging fear that an open matter might quietly resurface in the wrong place. That fear is now addressed: the case does not vanish, and it does not duplicate. It simply moves house.

The migration defence is now very hard to run

The most important strategic takeaway is about what you should stop doing. The old tactic of arguing that a notice lapsed because you had migrated is, after this circular, very unlikely to succeed. The notice does not lapse; the order does not become void; only the handling office changes. So redirect your energy. Stop arguing the procedure and start arguing the merits. That is where a migrated case will actually be won or lost.

A five-step checklist

1. Map your live proceedings. List every pending notice, audit, adjudication or appeal with its issuing authority and your current jurisdiction, and flag any mismatch.
2. Confirm the competent authority. For any migrated case, the new jurisdiction is now competent. Direct all replies, submissions and hearing attendance there.
3. Drop the migration defence. Argue the substance of the case, not the jurisdiction change.
4. Watch the handover. A fresh notice from the old officer after migration is contrary to the circular and worth flagging.
5. Keep registration current. Update your Principal Place of Business promptly so records reflect the correct jurisdiction and you are never caught between two offices.

Cite it as CBIC Circular No. 255/01/2026-GST, dated 25 June 2026 (File No. CBIC-20010/11/2026-GST), and read the full text on the CBIC GST portal before relying on it in any submission.

Download the full carousel PDF: the three rules, transferor vs transferee, and the five-step checklist in one shareable deck.

Caught between an old and a new GST jurisdiction on a live notice or appeal? We help founders and finance teams map the competent authority and frame the right response before the next deadline. Need help navigating this? Book a call: https://calendly.com/asbanka-info/30min

CA Adityavikram Banka, Founder, A S Banka Advisors Private Limited.