The Madurai Bench of the Hon’ble Madras High Court (‘the High Court’), held that mere uploading of orders on the GST portal does not amount to ‘communication’ to the assessee for the purpose of limitation for filing an appeal under Section 107 of the CGST Act, 2017
Facts:
- Inspection was conducted at the Petitioner’s business premises, and subsequently, a show-cause notice (‘the SCN’) was issued under Section 74 of the CGST Act for the F.Y. 2020-21 and 2021-22
- The Petitioner filed a reply to the SCN, however, the adjudicating authority passed orders levying tax, interest, and penalty. The orders were uploaded on the GST Portal only and not served by any other means
- Since the Petitioner was not aware of the passing of the orders, the time limit for filing an appeal under Section 107 of the CGST Act lapsed. Therefore, the Petitioner approached the High Court on the basis that the orders were not served upon them and were only uploaded on the GST Portal
Issues before the High Court:
Whether uploading orders on the GST portal under Section 169 of the CGST Act constitutes valid ‘communication’ to the assessee for the purpose of computing the limitation period under Section 107 of the Act?
Discussion and Ruling:
The High Court held that the orders were only uploaded on the GST Portal and not communicated to the Petitioner, and therefore the limitation period for filing an appeal has not commenced for the Petitioner, based on the following:
- While Section 169 of the CGST Act prescribes alternative modes of service including uploading on the GST portal, but in the particular facts of the case, the adjudicating authority was obliged to have resorted to other modes of service
- The statute employed different expressions, namely ‘served’ under Section 169 and ‘communication’ under Section 107, to denote different meanings. ‘Communication’ implies imparting or transmitting information with the element of reaching out. Service will become communication if the authority reaches out to the assessee. Mere uploading of the orders on the GST portal does not satisfy the requirement of communicating to the assessee under Section 107 of the CGST Act
In view of the above, the High Court held that the orders were not communicated to the Petitioner and therefore the limitation period for filing an appeal has not commenced. Consequently, the High Court has directed the respondents to communicate the orders to the Petitioner and granted liberty to the Petitioner to file an appeal under Section 107 of the CGST Act.