Suo moto registration
Rule 16 of the CGST Rules
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Suo motu registration: where a survey, inspection or search shows a person who should have registered has not, the officer registers him temporarily in REG-12; the person must then apply properly within ninety days, or within thirty days of an appellate order upholding the action.
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The exact words of the law
1,447 characters, uneditedReproduced from the CBIC text. We explain it above — but you should always be able to read it yourself.
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(1) Where, pursuant to any survey, enquiry, inspection, search or any other proceedings under the Act, the proper officer finds that a person liable to registration under the Act has failed to apply for such registration, such officer may register the said person on a temporary basis and issue an order in FORM GST REG-12 .
(2) The registration granted under sub-rule
(1) shall be effective from the date of such order granting registration.
(3) Every person to whom a temporary registration has been granted under sub-rule
(1) shall, within a period of ninety days from the date of the grant of such registration, submit an application for registration in the form and manner provided in rule 8 or rule 12 : Provided that where the said person has filed an appeal against the grant of temporary registration, in such case, the application for registration shall be submitted within a period of thirty days from the date of the issuance of the order upholding the liability to registration by the Appellate Authority.
(4) The provisions of rule 9 and rule 10 relating to verification and the issue of the certificate of registration shall, mutatis mutandis , apply to an application submitted under sub-rule (3).
(5) The Goods and Services Tax Identification Number assigned, pursuant to the verification under sub-rule (4), shall be effective from the date of the order granting registration under sub-rule (1).
Where this comes from
Text reproduced from the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, as available on 2026-09-05. The explanation and practice notes above are GSTZone’s own, written for this hub. If you spot anything out of date, tell us and we’ll fix it — this hub is checked daily against CBIC.
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