Law correspondent, Allahabad. The Allahabad High Court has dismissed the applications and canceled the claim recovery proceedings, considering mere uploading of notice or order on the online portal by the GST Department as not 'information'. This order has been given by the division bench of Justice Soumitra Dayal Singh and Justice Inderjit Shukla while hearing dozens of petitions.
The court said that mere uploading of notice or order on the common portal cannot be considered as actual communication thereof to the taxpayer, unless it is actually or constructively served. The court said, since the implementation of GST, the state tax authorities have almost completely stopped the practice of physical delivery (by post or hand) of notices and orders, while the central tax authorities are still using the offline mode.
This change has put small and medium scale businessmen, who were earlier accustomed to physical notices in the trade tax/VAT tax regime, into trouble. They do not even get information about the notice or order and the time limit for filing the appeal expires. In such a situation, unilateral recovery orders are passed against them. The Court clarified that all the modes (hand delivery, speed post, e-mail, making available on portal, publication in newspaper) mentioned in clauses (a) to (e) of Section 169(1) of the GST Act are optional.
Tax officers can choose anyone
Tax officials can choose anyone. Only the last mode of gluing can be used when the previous five modes are not practical. Mere posting of information on the portal will not imply that the notice/order has been received by the taxpayer. The period for appeal will commence only when the order is actually or constructively served on the taxpayer and not merely from the date of uploading. The court also pointed out the shortcomings of the common portal operated by the GST network GSTN. Said there is lack of Hindi interface.
It also does not have a means to track whether the taxpayer viewed or downloaded the notice. There are also no user-friendly tabs to easily view notices/orders. For the same taxpayer category, under the same GST law, state and central authorities are adopting different methods of service which is creating confusion and unnecessary litigation.
The court canceled the unilateral orders passed against all the petitioners on the condition of depositing 10 percent of the disputed tax demand. While sending it to the concerned officer for reconsideration, instructions were given that show-cause notice and all the documents should be given to the taxpayer, proper opportunity should be given to file reply and hearing and decision should be taken within six months.