2025-VIL-1353-ALH
  1. Home
  2. 2025-VIL-1353-ALH

SGST High Court Cases

GST - Section 107(1), (4) and (11) and Section 169 of the CGST Act, 2017 - Rule 142 (1), (1A) and (2) of the CGST Rules, 2017 - Mode and manner of service of notices/orders under GST - Service of notice only through electronic mode and not through physical mode – Whether Electronic service of notice/orders amounts to 'communication' under the CGST Act, 2017 - The petitioner’s grievance that the show cause notices and adjudication orders were not served on the petitioners physically/offline, and were only made available on the Common Portal managed. The petitioners contend that this deprived them of an opportunity to file replies and impaired their right to challenge the orders within the hard statutory period of limitation. The revenue authorities maintained that under Section 169 of the GST laws, service through electronic mode, including uploading on the Common Portal, is valid - Whether service of show cause notices and adjudication orders through electronic mode, including uploading on the Common Portal, is valid and sufficient for the purposes of Section 107 of the CGST Act, 2017 – HELD – The service of notices and orders through electronic mode, including uploading on the Common Portal, is permissible under the law. However, the deeming fiction of 'deemed service' under Section 169(2) and (3) of the CGST Act applies only to service through modes specified in Clauses (a), (b), (e) and (f) of Section 169(1), and not to service through electronic mode under Clauses (c) and (d) - The GST laws have undergone a transformative change from the earlier offline/physical mode of service to an electronic mode. This has caused difficulties for small and medium-sized assessees who were accustomed to the earlier physical mode of service and communication. The legislature has consciously used the term 'communicated' in Section 107 for the purpose of start of limitation to file appeals, which requires actual or constructive service of the contents of the notice or order, and not merely 'receipt' of the electronic communication. The legislature has deliberately not used the word ‘upload’ and its derivatives but the phrase 'making it available'. Thereby the legislative intent has been clearly expressed that the document or communication should be readily available to the noticee - In the absence of any verifiable mechanism with the GSTN or revenue authorities to ascertain when the notices or orders were retrieved, downloaded or viewed by the assessees on the Common Portal, the date of 'communication' for the purpose of Section 107 would be governed by actual or constructive service strictly in terms of Section 169 of the Act – In the absence of any legislative intent, uploading of notices/orders on the Common Portal cannot be equated with the modes of 'tendering', 'publishing' or 'affixation' under Section 169(2) and (3) for the purpose of deemed service - The individual adjudication orders are set aside subject to the petitioners depositing 10% of the disputed demand of tax and matters are remitted to the Adjudicating Authority for fresh consideration after providing the petitioners with copies of the show cause notices and documents and an opportunity of hearing – The writ petitions are allowed
Download File

Quick Search

/

Advance Search

GST Resources

/

Gst Rate Finder

Tax Vista

Your Weekly Tax Recap

By Kasi Viswanathan V

Weekly Summary

VIL Video

GSTR-9 & GSTR-9C of FY24-25
By CA Vivek Jalan

Create Account

Security-Code
New Code?

Log In

New User ? Forgot Password ?

Forgot Password

Security-Code
New Code?
Please Note: This facility is only for Subscribing Members.

Email this page

Feedback this page

Schedule a Demo

Schedule a demo to know the features and advantages of VILGST portal. Get to know the tips to find the desired results in faster way.

Caselaw Request Form (CRF)

Didn’t find what you are searching for? No worries, please give us the following details and VIL will email you the desired Caselaws at the earliest:

Security-Code
New Code?