Nikhil Debnath Vs Union of India & other (Tripura High Court)
Mere Uploading of GST Order on Portal Without Valid Service Under Section 169 Cannot Sustain Recovery Proceedings
The petitioner is a developer. A show cause notice proposing demand of GST was issued. It replied. It appeared. All correspondence was being undertaken physically under acknowledgment. However; order was simply uploaded on the portal. The petitioner became aware of such order only upon filing application under Right to Information (RTI) Act. Challenging such order, petition came to be filed.
The Hon’ble Tripura High Court admitted the petition and granted stay of recovery proceedings. It noted: (i) the Madras High Court in Sharp case has held that mere uploading of order on portal is not “valid” service under section 169 of the CGST Act and the Revenue has to follow other modes mentioned therein; (ii) as regards plea of sending it by Speed Post, what subclause (b) of sub-section (1) of section 169 of the Act requires is that the order should be sent by Speed Post with “Acknowledgement due”. Though the department has produced the Dispatch Register; they have not produced the “Acknowledgment” card which would have been returned after the article sent by speed post is received by the petitioner; (iii) notes that the Postal Department has informed the petitioner that there is no evidence of service of the article in question on petitioner after it was dispatched.
