The Kerala High Court, in a recent ruling, held that orders issued under Section 73 of the CGST/SGST Acts without the digital or manual signature of the officer passing the order are invalid.
The court was considering the issue of whether orders issued under Section 73 of the CGST/SGST Acts must carry the digital or manual signature of the officer passing the order to treat the order to be a valid order for the CGST/SGST Acts.
The writ petition was filed by M/s Fortune Service, the assessee/petitioners, stating that the orders issued under Section 73 of the CGST are invalid as they lack the digital/manualnual signature of the officer passing the order. The bench looked into the case of Silver Oak Villas LLP V. Assistant Commissioner (ST), Begunpet Division Hyderabad [(2024) 17 Centax 442 (Telangana)].
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An unsigned notice or an order cannot be considered an order as has been held by the Bombay High Court in Ramani Suchit Malushte vs. Union of India and ors. In view of the above, the impugned order dated 07.06.2022 is set aside.
The bench, after analysing the case of Silver Oak Villas (supra) opined that the reference to Rule 26(3) of the CGST Rules in the said judgment may not be apposite as that Rule refers specifically to issues of registration.
The single bench of Justice Gopinath P allowed the writ petitions by quashing the impugned orders and making it clear that it would be open to the competent among the respondents in all these cases to upload fresh orders by affixing digital signatures or by serving a copy of the order after affixing manual signature.
Since it is possible that in several of the cases, there may have been a change of officer, who passed the original order, the bench held that, fresh orders shall be passed by the competent officer presently in office, after affording a fresh opportunity of hearing to the petitioners in these cases.
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