Delhi HC directs Readjudication of SCN issued before GST Portal Redesign [Read Order]

A Division Bench of Delhi High Court direced  the Goods and Services Tax ( GST ) Authority to re-adjudicate the Show Cause Notice ( SCN ) issued by the authority before the GST Portal Redesign.

The Petitioner, Mr.Kamla Vohra filed the present petition, inter alia, impugning order dated 08.04.2024 passed under Section 73 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 in pursuant to the SCN dated 10.12.2023.

The Advocates representing the petitioner Mr.Sumit K. Batra, Mr.Manish Khurana, Ms.Priyanka Jindal and Mr.Nikhin Alex, Advocates claimed that the impugned SCN was not received and therefore she neither did filed a reply or appeared before the concerned Authorities. As the impugned SCN was uploaded on the portal in the category of ‘Additional Notices’ the petitioner couldnot access it easily.

The Petitioner contended that the SCN was to be placed under the heading of ‘ Notices ‘ but that was not done here.

Counsel for the parties submit that the issue involved in the present petition is covered by earlier decisions of this Court, in ACE Cardiopathy Solutions (P.) Ltd. v. Union of India. In the above cited decision the court has rejected the contention that uploading of the notices under the heading ‘Additional Notices’ would be covered under the Section 169 of CGST Act.

The relevant extracts of the above decision is given below:-

“Learned counsel for respondent submits that in terms of Section 169 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, uploading of a notice on the portal is sufficient compliance with regard to intimation to the taxpayer”.

“We are unable to accept the contention of the learned counsel, reference may be had to the judgment of the High Court of Madras in W.P. No. 26457/2023, titled M/s East Coast Constructions and Industries Ltd. v. Assistant Commissioner ( ST ) dated 11-9-2023, wherein the High Court of Madras has noticed that communications are placed under the heading of “View Notices and Orders” and “View Additional Notices and Orders”, the bench noted.

The Madras High Court had directed the respondents to address the issue arising out of posting of information under two separate headings. As per the petitioner, the Menu “View Additional Notices and Orders” were under the heading of “User Services” and not under the heading “View Notices and Orders”.

According to the information received the GST Authorities has addressed the issue and re-designed the portal inorder to ensure that ‘View Notices’ and ‘View Additional Notices’ has been placed under the same heading.

But the impugned SCN was issued before the portal redesign.

The Division bench comprising Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice Sachin Datta in view of the above stated facts allowed the present petition and also set aside the impugned order. The matter has also been remanded to the concerned authority to adjudicate fresh SCN.

The Petitioner was provided with the liberty to file a response to the impugned SCN within a period of two weeks from date.

The Delhi High Court thus directed the concerned authority to adjudicate the impugned SCN after considering the petitioner's response and after providing the petitioner with a fair opportunity to be heard.

The Division bench disposed of the present petition in the aforesaid terms.

The Respondent was represented by Mr.Avishkar Singhvi, ASC Mr.Shubham Kumar, Mr.Vivek Kumar Singh and Mr.Naved Ahmed, Advocates for GNCTD.

To Read the full text of the Order CLICK HERE

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