Rama Energy Solutions Vs Assistant Commissioner ST. (Telangana High Court)
Telangana High Court, in a significant ruling on Friday, July 18, 2025, invalidated an order issued by the Assistant Commissioner of State Tax to Rama Energy Solutions, reiterating a fundamental principle of administrative law: an official order lacking a proper signature is legally non-existent. This judgment underscores the judiciary’s insistence on procedural integrity in tax administration and highlights a persistent issue of unsigned documents being uploaded by authorities.
The case, Rama Energy Solutions Vs Assistant Commissioner ST, arose from a writ petition filed by Rama Energy Solutions challenging an order dated September 25, 2023. Sri Srinivasa Rao Kudupudi, the learned counsel representing the petitioner, contended that the impugned order was not signed by the competent authority, rendering it “no order in the eyes of law” and therefore unenforceable. He asserted that the matter was directly covered by a recent pronouncement of the same High Court in M/s. SRK Enterprises vs. Assistant Commissioner (W.P.No.29397 of 2023, decided on November 10, 2023).
The learned Government Pleader for Commercial Taxes, while acknowledging through oral instructions that the order in question was indeed unsigned, maintained that it had been uploaded by the competent authority. In an attempt to legitimize the unsigned document, the government pleader invoked Sections 160 and 169 of the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Act, 2017, arguing that these provisions could cure such a defect. This argument, however, mirrored pleas previously rejected by the court in similar contexts.
