Luxmi Traders Vs Union Territory of Chandigarh And Others (Punjab And Haryana High Court)
GST Portal Upload Alone Insufficient Service of SCN and Orders Under Section 169 – Punjab & Haryana HC
The Punjab and Haryana High Court decided a batch of writ petitions through a common judgment, treating CWP No. 27139 of 2025 as the lead case. The principal issue before the Court was whether uploading a show cause notice (SCN) and an order-in-original in the “View Additional Notices and Orders” tab on the GST common portal (gst.gov.in) constituted proper service under Sections 169 and 146 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, thereby triggering the limitation period for filing an appeal under Section 107. The Court recorded that although the petitioners had also challenged the notification dated 31.03.2023 issued under Section 168A, arguments were confined to the issue of service of notices and orders, and the validity of the notification was left open.
The lead petitioner challenged the order-in-original dated 28.12.2023, contending that it had never been served in the manner prescribed by law. Scrutiny proceedings had commenced under Section 61, followed by issuance of Form ASMT-10 on 29.08.2023 and Form DRC-01 under Section 73 on 27.09.2023. According to the petitioner, neither the show cause notice nor any hearing notice was properly communicated, no opportunity of hearing was afforded, and the order-in-original along with Form DRC-07 was merely uploaded under the “View Additional Notices and Orders” tab without adoption of any other prescribed mode of service. The petitioner submitted that this deprived it of the statutory appellate remedy under Section 107, as the Department treated the portal upload as valid service for computing limitation.
