The Telangana High Court has held that the manual issuance of GST order without considering reply on GST Portal amounts to violation of principles of natural justice.
The bench of Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Namavarapu Rajeshwar Rao has observed that the recording in the portal i.e., ‘Reply furnished, pending for order by tax officer’ makes it clear that the petitioner’s reply to show-cause notice was received by the respondents. Thus, finding given by the Authority in the order that the petitioner failed to submit his reply is factually incorrect and cannot sustain judicial scrutiny. If the reply of the petitioner is not considered, the principles of natural justice were grossly violated.
Background
The petitioner/assessee has challenged the Order. The principle ground of attack to this order is that when the petitioner was put on show-cause notice, the petitioner filed reply dated 16.04.2024.
The petitioner relied on the photocopy of portal at page No.36 submits that the ‘status’ shows that: ‘Reply furnished, pending for order by tax officer’.
The petitioner urged that reply was on record, but learned Authority opined that the petitioner failed to submit his reply. It runs contrary to record and thereby, the valuable right of the petitioner to defend through reply as well as right of personal hearing was taken away.
Conclusion
The court disposed of the writ petition by setting aside the order and the Authority is directed to consider the reply filed by the petitioner to the show-cause notice and proceed further in accordance with law from that stage. There shall be no order as to costs.
Public Opinion
“Some GST offices (especially Central) function as if portal does not exist. ASMT 10, DRC1, Order is issued manually. Later when the tax payer approaches for appeal, then they upload the order on the portal. Some CGST appellate authorities are handling appeal manually. That is – the assessee files appeal online, but they do not issue APL 2 on the system. But we have to submit hard copy, which they acknowledge,” Advocate Kuldeep Kulkarni said.
“Then the appeal is decided. But nothing is on the portal. Where Rules or Act specifically requires working on the portal, such ignoring of portal without specifying a valid reason is wrong. And proceedings will not sustain in higher judicial fora,” Advocate Kulkarni added.
FAQs
Is Manual Issuance Of GST Order allowed with considering the online reply filed on GST portal?
Case Details
Case Title: M/s OLA Fleet Technologies Private Limited Versus UOI
Case No.: Writ Petition No.20611 Of 2024
Date: 30.09.2024
Counsel For Petitioner: Praveen K Nair
Counsel For Respondent: Gadi Praveen Kumar
