Naresh Pal Vs Union of India & Others (Delhi High Court)
Delhi High Court held that a taxpayer cannot claim ignorance of a GST show cause notice uploaded on the portal’s “Additional Notices” tab after visibility improvements made in January 2024. However, the Court set aside the ex-parte demand order for violating natural justice and remanded the case for fresh hearing.
Background of the Case: The petitioner, Mr. Naresh Pal Proprietor of M/S Secure Enterprises, challenged an ex-Parte GST demand order dated 24th August, 2024, which was passed pursuant to a SCN issued on 19/05/2024 for the FY 2019-20 for two points which are given below.
1. The core of the dispute was procedural. The petitioner admitted that they have not replied to show cause notice nor attended the personal hearing. Their primary defence was that the SCN was uploaded on the ‘Additional Notices and Tabs’ section of the GST portal, which they claimed was not sufficiently prominent and visible to them ultimately skipped from their end. So, there is no default from the petitioner end.
However, the high court cited and clearly mentioned that after 16/01/2024 i.e. before issue of this challenged SCN, changes were made to the GST portal to make the ‘Additional Notices Tab’ more visible to every GSTIN holder. Since the SCN in question was issued in May 2024, the court founds that this ground of the petitioner is unsustainable. The petitioner’s failure to respond to SCN was petitioner error, therefore, not due to a portal flaw.
