In a significant judgment, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that Service of Show Cause Notices (SCN) upon the assessee concerned cannot be deemed sufficient merely on account of its uploading on the Common Portal of GST unless its receipt is acknowledged or a reply is filed.
The Bench of Acting Chief Justice Ashwini Kumar Mishra and Justice Rohit Kapoor passed an order on a bunch of petitions filed by many firms challenging action of the Excise and Taxation Department, Chandigarh, of uploading the notices on the website. The petitioners argued that the uploading of the order in the manner adopted by the respondents did not amount to valid service of the order upon the petitioner. It was further contended that the order impugned had otherwise been passed in violation of principles of natural justice as no opportunity of hearing was afforded to the petitioners and therefore, interference was required by the Court in the petition.
Counsels of the firms argued that they were deprived of the opportunity to avail the remedy of appeal under Section 107 of the Act of 2017. They said that apart from uploading the order on the tab ‘View Additional Notices and Orders’, there was no other method adopted by the respondents for effecting service of the impugned order-in-original or any other communication upon the petitioner.
After hearing of the arguments, the Bench in order further said that “where SCN is served only by way of uploading it on the Common Portal and in the absence of reply filed by the assessee concerned, ex parte order is passed in original, the proceedings would stand restored to the stage of issuance of SCN and the petitioner would be at liberty to file reply to the SCN within a period of four weeks from today whereafter, the Department shall proceed further after affording required opportunity of hearing”.
In cases where the order-in-original is passed after contest, and is served only by uploading it on the Common Portal, the period of limitation for filing of appeal would not be triggered, and the assessee aggrieved will have the right to file an appeal within a period of four weeks from today.
