Radha Industries Vs Deputy Commissioner (Allahabad High Court)
The Allahabad High Court has dismissed a petition filed by Radha Industries, affirming that a GST notice uploaded to the common portal constitutes a valid mode of service. The petitioner had challenged a final order passed under Section 74(9) of the Uttar Pradesh Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.
The primary argument presented by the petitioner’s counsel was that service of the notice was improper under Section 169 of the CGST Act. While acknowledging that the notice was uploaded to the common portal—a mode of service prescribed under Section 169(1)(d)—the petitioner contended that he could not access it because his employee, who held the password, had left the job. The petitioner claimed he only became aware of the order after his account was attached in a separate case.
To support his argument, the petitioner’s counsel relied on Section 169(1)(f), which states that a notice can be served by “affixing it in some conspicuous place” if “none of the modes aforesaid is practicable.” The petitioner’s counsel attempted to interpret this clause to mean that if a taxpayer cannot access the portal, the department must use other means of service.
The court, however, rejected this interpretation. It clarified that the phrase “if none of the modes aforesaid is practicable” refers to the practicability for the department to serve the notice, not the taxpayer’s ability to receive it. The court stated that the petitioner had “misread and misunderstood the purport, meaning and application” of clause (f). Since the department had already successfully served the notice by uploading it to the common portal, a method explicitly permitted by clause (d), clause (f) was not applicable to the facts of the case.
