The Kerala High Court Dismissed the Writ appeal challenging Goods and services Tax ( GST ) assessment Order. It was observed that GST assessment order communicated through common portal is valid service.
Sunil Kumar K, the appellant/assessee was a dealer under the Central Goods and Services Tax Act/Kerala State Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and Rules. The assessee approached the writ court, challenging the assessment order.
The appellant contended that the assessment order was communicated to the appellant through the portal that was notified by the government for purposes in accordance with Section 146 of the CGST Act. The government had not notified the portal for the purposes of uploading orders, notices, etc. Therefore, the portal could be used only for the specific purposes mentioned in Section 146 of the Income Tax Act.
The single judge relegated the appellant to his alternate remedy of filing an appeal in terms of Section 107 of the GST Act and dismissed the petition. The assessee contended that the notification of the portal in terms of Section 146 was only to facilitate registration, payment of tax, furnishing of returns, computation, and settlement of integrated tax, electronic waybill, and for carrying out such other functions as may be prescribed. As much as the uploading of orders is not a purpose specifically mentioned in Section 146, the common portal cannot be used for purposes like communication of notices, orders, etc.
As per Section 169 of the GST statute, any decision, order, summons, notice, or other communication under the Act or Rules may be served on the assessee, inter alia, by making it available on the common portal.
The bench of Justice A.K. Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice Syam Kumar V.M. upheld the decision of the Single Bench in which it was held that the petitioner had downloaded the assessment order from the very same portal.
The court held that the statutory provision has to be read along with the provisions of Section 146 means that once a common portal is notified for the Act, then any of the actions such as registration, payment of tax, furnishing of returns, etc., as well as the communication of notices, orders, etc., as provided for under the statute, can be effected through the notified portal.
While dismissing the Writ Appeal, the Court upheld the decision of the Single Bench. Bobby John appeared for the petitioner and Thomas Mathew Nellimoottil appeared for the respondent.
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